North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sacked his top general while calling for the military to boost weapons production and increase combat drills in preparation for an “offensive” war, state-run media reported Thursday.
This is from the press release:
Saying that to prepare a strong army is the key to implementing the military strategic plan of the Party Central Committee for containing the enemy’s use of military muscle in advance and neutralize all forms of its attack at once in case of the outbreak of a war, he called for securing more powerful strike means for carrying out the mission of war deterrence and continuously intensifying the work for deploying them in the units for action in a mobile way.
He also called for actively conducting actual war drills to efficiently operate newly deployed latest weapons and equipment to ensure that they would display the maximum effect in combat, and radically increasing the KPA’s capabilities for fighting a war by making it keep its mobilized posture for combat all the time.
Saying that the munitions factories have a very important duty to strengthen the KPA in terms of military technology, he underlined the need for all the munitions industrial establishments to push ahead with the mass-production of various weapons and equipment in real earnest to satisfy the operational demand of the KPA undergoing modernization, and set forth the goal for the expansion of the weaponry production capacity and the weaponry production plan.
The enlarged meeting dealt with the organizational matter of dismissing General Pak Su Il from the post of the chief of the General Staff and appointing Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil as new chief of the General Staff, and of dismissing, transferring to other posts or newly appointing some leading commanding officers.
It also discussed a series of important tasks facing the armed forces of the DPRK, including the issue of making preparations for the successful militia parade marking the 75th founding anniversary of the DPRK.