North's Kim Jong-un calls for 'war' preparations as South Korea, U.S. hold joint exercise

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits a military training center in the country's western region on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a military training center and requested practical and strengthened preparations for "war" on Wednesday, the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday.

Kim’s tour of the military training center, the location of which was unidentified in the KCNA report, is seen as a response to the joint South Korea-United States Freedom Shield exercise, which began on Monday.

Kim ordered the military to “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation,” KCNA reported.

“Our army should steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” Kim told the troops, according to KCNA.

Photos released by the KCNA showed Kim observing military drills with binoculars and taking a shooting position with what appeared to be an AK-74 assault rifle. Kim also posed for commemorative photos with the soldiers who participated in the training.

The training center is believed to be a frontline unit near the western part of North Korea, and it appears that the drill focused on seizing a frontline guard post (GP) and breaking through a general outpost (GOP).

North Korea on Tuesday condemned the South Korea-U.S. joint Freedom Shield exercise, warning that a “dear price” will be paid for what the regime called “war drills.”

“The large-scale war drills staged by the world's biggest nuclear weapons state and more than 10 satellite states against a state in the Korean peninsula where a nuclear war may be ignited even with a spark, can never be called ‘defensive,’” said an unnamed spokesperson at North Korea’s Defense Ministry in a statement carried by the KCNA.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senior Official for North Korea Jung Pak pointed out the need for “interim steps” on a path toward North Korea’s ultimate denuclearization, which she emphasized would not happen “overnight.”

“I think it goes without saying that there would have to be interim steps toward ultimate denuclearization,” said Pak during a forum hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday. “Given the scope of the DPRK weapons activities and its proliferation, there is a lot to work with there. It is not going to happen overnight. That's the reality of it.”

DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Analysts point out that North Korea could seek to shake up South Korea’s general elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November. While the Joe Biden administration has thus far maintained it is open to dialogue without preconditions, without ever making any significant proposals for talks to Pyongyang, two White House officials’ mention of taking “interim steps” toward denuclearization just this week, expressing a concrete desire for dialogue, may become a pivotal factor.

While Pyongyang has yet to respond to these remarks, North Korea could use both military provocations and negotiations to overcome its diplomatic isolation brought on in part by its illegal arms transactions with Russia and the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba and to show off its presence during the U.S. presidential elections.

“We must be thoroughly prepared for the possibility that North Korea will take advantage of the election period between South Korea and the United States to engage in a two-pronged tactic of combing military provocations and diplomatic negotiations,” said Oh Gyeong-Seob, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

China also recently commented on the recent escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the country’s Foreign Minster Wang Yi stressing the urgency of “escaping the spiral of confrontation.”

“The fundamental path is to resume peace negotiations to address the reasonable security concerns of each party, especially North Korea, and to promote a political solution process for the Korean Peninsula issue,” said Yi during a press conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing on Thursday.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, CHUNG YEONG-GYO [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]