Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Guides Artillery Firing Drill of KPA Large Combined Units
KCNA WatchNov 29, 2015
NKorea: Kim Jong Un Leads Artillery Drills
The Facts
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has guided live-fire long-range artillery drills involving border sub-units with a range capable of striking "the enemy's capital," state media reported on Friday.
This comes after South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that Pyongyang had test-fired multiple rocket launcher shells and self-propelled artillery shells toward the Yellow Sea on Thursday.
The Spin
Pro-North Korea narrative
In the face of the latest spate of anti-North Korea moves by the US and its puppet regime in Seoul, Pyongyang has no other option than to heighten its war deterrence. Therefore, military exercises to boost combat readiness and capabilities to protect the nation are vital for the North.
Anti-North Korea Narrative
As much as North Korea wishes to flex its military potential and threaten war with bombastic rhetoric, it would be best for Pyongyang not to push this too far. Its current rate of military drills will be near-impossible to sustain, and the North is well known to suffer extreme economic hardship. Dangerous propaganda and military activity are merely a mask for a fragile and vulnerable nation.
Nerd narrative
There's a 14% chance that there will be a full-scale war between North Korea and South Korea by 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.