Yonhap: Kim Jong-un at Labor Party meeting sets goals to strengthen country’s defense

MOSCOW, December 28 – RIA Novosti. Amid reports of escalation on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set goals at the General Assembly of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in 2023 to strengthen the country’s defense potential. transmits Yonhap news agency quotes North Korean media.

Five North Korean drones had previously invaded South Korea on Monday morning. According to the military, these were small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles with a wingspan of two meters. Seoul responded by launching warplanes, helicopters and other vehicles to destroy the drones. The South Korean military fired about 100 shots from 20mm cannons from helicopters to drones, but failed to hit the drones, partly returning to North Korea, partly disappearing from radar.

“The North Korean leader sets targets to strengthen the country’s defense at the 2-day meeting of the party plenary,” the agency said.

According to the agency, quoting the North Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-un outlined “new key targets to strengthen self-defense to be achieved in 2023 in the face of a changing situation multilaterally”.

The sixth plenary meeting of the DPRK Workers’ Party (WPK) Central Committee for the eighth meeting started on 26 December. As WPK Secretary-General, Kim Jong-un chairs it on behalf of the Plenum Presidency and members of the WPK Politburo Presidency, WPK Central Committee Politburo members and candidate members. Party and Party Central Committee members and candidates are also present.

Four of the five North Korean drones entered South Korea from the western side of Ganghwa Island and remained in the same area. The South Korean military argues they are needed to divert attention. After that, they disappeared from the army’s radar and were never seen again. The fifth drone crossed the border between Gimpo and Paju, landed on the northern border of the Seoul metropolitan area, and then returned to North Korea. It could even land in Yongsan, the central district of Seoul, where the country’s new presidential administration is located, according to some media in South Korea.

Seoul responded by sending manned and unmanned reconnaissance assets and equipment to adjacent areas of North Korea north of the military border line (the inter-Korean border), where they filmed, among other things, North Korea’s main military infrastructure.