opinion

The year 2024 witnessed a rapid development in the strengthening of the armed forces of the DPRK.

The respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un advanced important guidelines for bolstering up the armed forces, a guarantee for national defence, in the present world where confrontation between physical strength and physical strength decides fate, thereby further consolidating them into invincible forces.

On a visit to Kim Jong Il Military and Political University, the supreme temple of military education in the country, he said that the university should achieve greater success in education so that units of the entire army at all levels can be filled with competent and versatile commanders who have made the capacity and temperament of overpowering the enemy with ideological, spiritual, combat and moral superiority and tactical ascendancy part of their special and mental qualities. When he paid a congratulatory visit to Kim Il Sung Military University, he indicated important tasks and ways for radically developing the university’s instruction and edification onto a new, higher stage.

As he visited the O Jin U Artillery Academy, a “pedigree” institution for training the hard-core members of the artillery of the country, he clarified ways to be followed by the academy in bolstering up the country’s artillery forces.

He attached great importance to the position and role of the battalion, the lowest commanding unit and major combat unit, in strengthening the Korean People’s Army, organized the Fourth Conference of the Battalion Commanders and Political Instructors of the KPA and illuminated ways to turn the battalions into combat groups with strong military discipline and regularized appearance.

The boundless love and trust of the respected General Secretary, who visits every place where soldiers are and shows fatherly affection to all officers and men, instill matchless strength and courage into them.

 Various military drills and test-fires he guided at the training grounds thick with powder smoke and dangerous firing lines and military hardware constantly updated and sophisticated are associated with the revolutionary leadership of the respected General Secretary, who is writing a hero biography for national defence buildup.

Different kinds of military exercises he oversaw, including the first general tactical drill for nuclear counterattack of sub-units of 600mm multiple rocket launchers, the artillery firing drill of large combined units of the KPA, the match training between the KPA tankmen’s combined units, the drill of the paratrooper units of the KPA and the firing drill of the artillery units in the western area, which are in charge of an important firing assignment, marked important occasions in developing the armed forces of the DPRK into an invincible army capable of fully coping with any combat situations.

Under his guidance, the DPRK armed forces have grown into elite ranks equipped with more advanced military hardware.

The development of a new-type tactical ballistic missile weapon system, a powerful cutting-edge tactical offensive weapon of Korean style, the completely successful test-fire of the latest-type ICBM Hwasongpho-19, a super-powerful offensive means, and the latest military equipment pieces which were on display at the Military Hardware Exhibition Defence Development-2024 clearly demonstrated the modernity and advancement of the military hardware attained by the DPRK armed forces.

Under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who leads the cause of a powerful army building along the road of victory with outstanding ideological and theoretical wisdom and scientific insight, the DPRK armed forces have been further consolidated politically and ideologically and in military technique and are demonstrating their might as an elite army with a powerful war deterrent.