KIM JONG UN: NORTH KOREA MUST BE READY FOR US-LED INVASION

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart its rivals’ plots to invade his country, state media said on Tuesday, as the US, South Korea and Japan held a trilateral naval exercise to deal with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats.

- 

The US and South Korean militaries have been separately holding summer bilateral exercises since last week. North Korea views such US-involved training as an invasion rehearsal, though Washington and its partners maintain their drills are defensive.

Kim said in a speech marking the country’s Navy Day on Monday that the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been made unstable “with the danger of a nuclear war” because of USled hostilities, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

He accused the US of conducting “more frantic” naval drills with its allies and deploying strategic assets in waters around the Korean Peninsula. Kim also cited a recent US-South Korean-Japanese summit where an agreement to boost defense cooperation was reached to counter North Korea’s nuclear programme. Kim called President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.