N. Korean Army Told: Ready For Combat

“War could break out without any prior notice” calls North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as he urged his military to bolster combat readiness, state media reported.

The call came one day after a US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University report said that satellite imagery suggested that the North might have begun producing fuel rods for its recently restarted nuclear reactor, Aljazeera.net reported.

Heightened tension is creeping on the Korean Peninsula following the execution of Kim’s uncle and former mentor in an unusually public purge.

Aljazeera reported Kim visited the Command of Large Combined Unit 526 on Christmas Eve, where reportedly “He instructed the unit to put utmost spurs on rounding off its combat readiness… always bearing in mind that a war breaks out without any prior notice.” South’s media reportedly said the unit is based in the North’s western port city of Nampo.

Aljazeera.net reported the Johns Hopkins University report has stated that satellite imagery had identified facilities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre that might produce fuel for North Korea’s recently restarted plutonium production reactor and the Experimental Light Water Reactor still under construction.

“The identification of these facilities indicates a more wide-ranging, extensive effort by North Korea to modernise and restart the Yongbyon complex dating back to 2009 than previously understood,” the report said.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has called for “watertight security readiness” during her trip on Tuesday to a frontline guard post, as she described the situation over the border as “ominous”. “We should react sternly and mercilessly to any provocations by North Korea,” Geun-Hye said.

Reports said tens of thousands of troops pledged loyalty to Kim in a mass rally on the death anniversary of his father on Tuesday last week.

The dynasty of Kim has ruled the poverty-stricken but nuclear-armed state since 1948.

Source: Aljazeera.net

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