North Korea's Kim inspects special operations unit's war readiness

Seoul, Nov 2 (IANS) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected the combat readiness of a military special operations unit and gave instructions for its development, the North's state media reported Sunday.

Kim visited the headquarters of the 11th Corps of the Korean People's Army the previous day and watched a training session, expressing "great satisfaction" with its perfect war posture, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The 11th Corps is the North Korean military's most elite special forces unit, which deployed troops to Russia late last year to support its war with Ukraine and gained experience in modern warfare.

The visit came on the same day President Lee Jae Myung held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the southeastern South Korean city of Gyeongju, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Ahead of the summit, the South Korean presidential office said the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula would be on the agenda for the Lee-Xi talks, but the results disclosed after the summit made no mention of the issue.

"It is the will and desire of the (ruling) party to turn the whole army into a strong and heroic one like the unit that always wins victory in every battle," Kim said while touring the unit's museum.

He received a briefing on the unit's operational plan and set forth "strategic policies and important tasks" for the development of the special operations forces, the KCNA said.

The leader also stressed the need to take a "military organisational and structural measure for strengthening" the unit, adding that the party's Central Military Commission will examine the issue on a full scale.

He also watched the unit's training and expressed "great satisfaction over the perfect war posture," saying the military is "fully ready" to thoroughly defend the sovereignty and development rights of the state and reliably safeguard the destiny and future of the people.

On Saturday, North Korea denounced the South Korean presidential office's announcement that denuclearisation was on the summit agenda with China, calling it a "pipe dream," but Sunday's report made no mention of the issue.

--IANS

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