SEOUL: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un drove a “new-type main battle tank” while overseeing military training exercises, state media said on Thursday, as Seoul and Washington wrap joint drills to improve deterrence.

Wearing a black leather jacket, Kim saluted ranks of camouflage-uniformed troops, and watched live-fire “training march” exercises from a field command post, flanked by top generals, images published by state media showed.

After he reviewed the tank crews, Kim “mounted a new-type main battle tank, seized the control lever and drove the tank himself”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The KCNA report comes as Seoul and Washington hold the final day of their annual Freedom Shield exercises — involving missile interception drills and air assault, among others.

The nuclear-armed North has long condemned joint US-South Korea military drills, calling them rehearsals for an invasion. It has carried out weapons tests in the past as a response to previous joint exercises of this nature.

Kim “expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the new-type main battle tank successfully demonstrated its very excellent striking power”, the KCNA report said.

The North Korean leader also stressed the “importance of the role and duty of tankmen in modern warfare”, as well as the “need to organise intensive exercises simulating an actual war”.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024