North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his army to step up military maneuvers for a “real war” during a missile-firing exercise attended by his daughter, the official KCNA news agency reported on Friday, France Presse reported.

North Korea should “regularly intensify a variety of real war simulation exercises in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations,” Kim Jong-un said, according to KCNA.

In addition, the North Korean leader, who watched the new military drills, ordered soldiers to prepare for “two strategic missions: first, to deter war, and second, to initiate war.”

Footage released by KCNA on Friday showed the simultaneous launch of six missiles by a Hwasong unit trained for “strike missions,” the agency said, adding that the unit “fired a powerful salvo (missile) toward the West Sea” (also called the Yellow Sea). .

A day earlier, South Korea’s military said it had detected a short-range ballistic missile launched into the sea off the country’s west coast, fired from the port city of Nampo, south of Pyongyang.

The military drills come as Seoul and Washington prepare to hold their largest joint military exercise in five years on Monday.

Kim Jong-un’s sister warns the US

Earlier this week, North Korea accused the United States of “deliberately” stoking tensions, and Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, the country’s second most influential man, warned that if the United States intercepted one of Pyongyang’s missile tests, it would be seen as “declaration of war”.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul are at their lowest level in several years, with talks at a standstill.

During this military exercise, the leader of North Korea appeared accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae, who some analysts consider the future heir to the regime.

Her recent appearance alongside her father at a grand military parade last month to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the country’s armed forces has already reignited speculation about a future dynastic transfer of power in North Korea.

“It appears that Joo Ae’s presence at major events related to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, which Pyongyang believes are of crucial benefit to the country’s future generations, has become the norm,” Yang Moo Jin, the president, told AFP. . University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

North Korea has long maintained that its missile and nuclear programs are aimed at self-defense. Pyongyang also condemned the recent joint exercises between Seoul and Washington, considering them a dress rehearsal for an invasion of North Korean territory.

North Korea’s air force is the weakest link in the country’s military apparatus, say experts, who see Pyongyang’s exercise on Thursday as evidence that the regime is trying to fill that gap.

“North Korea’s latest maneuvers, like many previous ones, are aimed at preventing South Korean warplanes from taking off,” Ahn Chang-il, director of the World Institute for North Korea Studies (Agerpres), told AFP.