Kim Jong-un said North Korea deployed “special assets” in response to what he called Washington’s arms build-up in the South, state media reported.
The United States stations about 28,500 troops in the South to fend off military threats from the nuclear-armed North and last month conducted a joint military exercise with its security allies South Korea and Japan.
Pyongyang routinely denounces such drills as rehearsals for invasion, while the allies insist they are defensive in nature.
“The US-ROK nuclear alliance is making rapid progress, and they are conducting various kinds of exercises to execute dangerous scenarios,” Kim said in a speech marking the opening of a weapons exhibition in Pyongyang on Saturday, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
“In direct proportion to the US military’s arms buildup in the ROK region, our strategic concern about this region has also grown, and accordingly we have assigned our special assets to the major targets,” he said, adding he was “closely watching” the military development across the border.
“The enemy... will have to worry about which direction their security environment is moving in,” he added without clarifying what the special assets were. — AFP
