Muscle flexing in North Korea
Kim Jong Un presents new battle tank
March 14, 2024, 10:25 a.m
The US and South Korea are currently holding their annual joint military exercise Freedom Shield. At the same time as the maneuver, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is now introducing a new tank. He himself tests the combat vehicle directly.
According to state media, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presented a new tank and also got behind the wheel during the presentation. Wearing a black leather jacket, Kim saluted troops in camouflage clothing and watched live ammunition drills from a command post, images from the KCNA news agency showed.
Afterwards, “Kim climbed into the new type battle tank, grabbed the control lever and drove the tank himself,” the medium reported. Kim expressed “very satisfaction” with the new tank’s “excellent striking capability,” KCNA reported. The North Korean ruler further emphasized the “importance of the role and task of tanks in modern warfare” as well as the “need to organize intensive exercises that simulate a real war.”
The unveiling of the new tank came on the final day of the US-South Korea annual joint military exercise Freedom Shield, which included missile interception and airstrike exercises. Pyongyang said last week that both countries would pay a “heavy price” for their exercises. A little later, North Korean state media reported that ruler Kim had led a large-scale artillery exercise with a unit that could reach the South Korean capital Seoul with its projectiles.