As North Korea apparently gears up for another nuclear test, Kim Jong-Un tells the troops they have to do better:
[After] watching a shelling drill by an artillery sub-unit on Friday, he upbraided soldiers for their lax approach, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
"Dear Supreme Commander Kim Jong-Un said nothing is more important than preparing for combat now, in the face of an impending conflict with the United States", KCNA reported. ...
"Watching the drill, he severely criticised the sub-unit for failing to make good combat preparation" citing the time it had taken to deploy, it said. ...
"The minds of the commanding officers of this sub-unit and relevant unit seem to be away from the battlefield", he said, KCNA reported. It is unusual for the agency to carry direct quotes from Kim.
Yet despite his criticism, The Un was understanding:
"Of course, they might do sideline jobs for improving service personnel's living conditions and do their bit in building a rich and powerful nation.
"However, they should always give priority to combat preparations", he said.
Got that? The Splenetic Rooster (or whatever animal nickname is authorized for Kim 3.0) not only knows that military units spend time on non-military tasks like growing food for the better living conditions and working in the civilian economy to produce GDP, but Kim approves of it.
It's just that Kim is reminding them that military training has to take priority over those things that should only be done in their spare time. They can sleep all they want when they're dead, right?
North Korea's military is in pretty bad shape if the supreme leader has to accept his military doing non-military training tasks just to survive his mis-rule.
UPDATE: Good luck with that:
Kim led a meeting of the Central Military Commission and "set forth important tasks for further developing the Korean People's Army and ways to do so", KCNA news agency said.
"He stressed the need to enhance the function and role of the political organs of the army if it is to preserve the proud history and tradition of being the army of the party, win one victory after another in the confrontation with the U.S. and creditably perform the mission as a shock force and standard-bearer in building a thriving nation."
The North Korean army is in shambles. Enhancing the political organs of the army aren't going to help them fight a war. Enhanced political organs and a buck will get you a cup of coffee, eh?
But that's all Kim Jong-Un has to offer. The reason North Korea's military is in the shape it is in is because the North Koreans can't afford the army to be a pillar of the state. Long before The Un rose to power, North Korea was forced to rely on a spooks and nukes to keep the kooks in power.
And efforts a few years ago to magically find the funds to restore the military have failed.
But what choice does Kim have when the army's loyalty is suspect, even the secret agents are being infected by corruption, and the nukes haven't been built and may not be as effective as the rulers hoped? The alternative is that Kim Jong-Un will be the last Kim to run North Korea.
So he'll tell the army to be more loyal and hope for the best.
