North Korea's armed forces have held
artillery exercises inspecting and
evaluating performance in order to
increase their mobile artillery combat
capabilities. The korean central news
agency state media outlet reported on
november 7 the drills were held the previous day
and saw the Korean People's Army (KPA) demonstrating its firepower at a time
when enthusiasm to undergo intensive
training prevails throughout the army for ushering in a new heyday and
strengthening the state defense
capabilities under the banner of
self-defense.
North Korean artillery forces are by
many estimates the very largest in the
world and have seen many new additions
in recent years particularly in the
field of rocket artillery including all
of the world's longest range systems
outside china. The country's staging of rocket
artillery exercises seemingly in
response to unannounced joint u.s south
korean air force drills reflects the KPA's greater reliance on artillery for
laying down fire where its adversaries
rely on aircraft.
North Korea's defense sector is among
the world's most versatile and produces
a wide range of artillery although it
does not produce combat jet aircraft
with the exception of a small number of
license-produced MIG-29s. Its lower reliance on aerial warfare is
in part a result of this.
Senior Politburo Official Park John Chan
and army chief of staff general Rim Kuang were among those who oversaw
the artillery exercises. While commanders
were provided with decision-making
autonomy to carry out their tasks and
personally commanded individual
artillery units to destroy targets. As soon as the firing orders were given
by the commanders of the combined units guns competitively shelled the target to
accurately hit and annihilate the enemy
KCNA reported North Korea and the united states have
been technically at war for over 70
years. Tensions between them remain high with Washington having seriously considered
initiating hostilities both under the
administrations of Barack Obama in 2016
and under the Donald Trump in 2017.
The latter considered plans for mass
nuclear strikes on the east asian state
which were expected to cause millions of
casualties. North korea has developed a range of
nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles to
complement its artillery, including at
least three classes of intercontinental
range missile capable of striking cities
on the united states mainland which are
seen by pyongyang as a deterrent against
u.s attacks.
