2024-01-05 04:38:02
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered authorities to increase production of mobile missile launchers because the country faces an imminent military confrontation with its enemies, state media reported Friday, as he works to make your pitches harder to detect.
The report on Kim’s order came hours following the White House said U.S. intelligence agencies determined that North Korea has supplied rocket launchers for ballistic missiles to Russia for its war once morest Ukraine. Previously, the United States and its allies have accused Pyongyang of sending artillery and ammunition to Moscow in exchange for Russian technologies to improve its own military programs.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a factory that produces transporter erector launchers (TELs), without indicating when he went or where the facility is located.
TELs are mobile launch vehicles that give North Korea the ability to move missiles around its territory, making it difficult for its adversaries to detect launches in advance. Some South Korean experts have estimated that Pyongyang has between 100 and 200 of these types of vehicles.
Kim said the factory’s position and role “are very important” to bolster North Korean national defense, “under the current severe situation that requires us to make stricter preparations for military confrontation with the enemies,” KCNA reported, and “took important measures to expand the factory’s capacity.”
At a crucial ruling party meeting last week, Kim pledged to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal, launch three additional military spy satellites and take other steps to strengthen the military this year, all to achieve “overwhelming” readiness. for war in order to confront what he said is a U.S.-led confrontation.
Kim mentioned the expansion of military exercises carried out jointly by Washington and Seoul, which sometimes involve long-range US bombers and a nuclear-armed submarine.
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