North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered senior military officials to strengthen front-line units and turn the country’s southern border into what state media described as an “impregnable fortress”.
The instruction was issued during a meeting on Sunday attended by top military commanders, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Photographs released by the state news agency showed Kim presiding over the gathering alongside officers in full dress uniform.
KCNA reported that Kim called for a “great change” in efforts to deter war and urged commanders to sharpen their “outlook on the arch enemy”, an apparent reference to South Korea.
The North Korean leader also outlined plans to strengthen front-line and other key military units “in military and technical aspects as an important decision to more thoroughly deter war”, the report said.
Analysts believe the plans reflect lessons drawn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during which Pyongyang has backed Moscow by supplying troops.
Relations between North and South Korea remain at one of their lowest points in recent years, with Pyongyang continuing to ignore repeated offers of dialogue from Seoul.
The military meeting took place on the same day North Korea’s women’s football team arrived in South Korea for the first time in eight years, briefly raising hopes of a modest easing in tensions.
KCNA said Kim also discussed the ruling party’s territorial defence policy, including measures to strengthen units stationed along the southern border and reinforce the frontier.
He further stressed that military modernisation projects should be accelerated to “newly define the concept of operations in all spheres”.
Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the remarks appeared closely linked to modern battlefield developments seen in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East.
“This phrase reflects awareness of drone warfare, precision strikes, electronic warfare and multi-domain battlefields observed in the Ukraine war and Middle East conflicts,” he told AFP.
Hong added that the plans suggested “a multi-domain operational concept extending beyond land, sea and air to include underwater, space, electronic and cyber domains".
