Kim Jong-un seen driving the most modern and mysterious North Korean tank
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un drove a " new-type battle tank " while overseeing military drills, state media said on Thursday, as Seoul and Washington wrap up joint drills to improve deterrence . A feat that is very much in line with his character.
Wearing a black leather jacket, Kim greeted scores of troops in camouflage uniforms and watched live-fire "training march" exercises from a field command post, flanked by senior generals, images released by the military showed. state media. Here is the glorious feat in an AP video:
After examining the tank crews, Kim "climbed onto a new-type tank, took 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 – which involve, among other things, missile interception drills and air assaults.
The nuclear-armed North has long condemned joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, calling them rehearsals for an invasion. It has carried out weapons tests in the past in response to previous joint exercises of this type.
Kim “expressed great satisfaction that the new-type main battle tank successfully demonstrated its excellent striking power,” the KCNA report said.
The North Korean leader also underlined "the importance of the role and duty of tankmen in modern warfare", as well as "the need to organize intensive exercises that simulate real war".
We are waiting to see Biden or Von Der Leyen drive a tank…
North Korea's new main battle tank
On the new North Korean tank it is called M2020 in the West, since the official name is not known. It appears a sort of renewal of the Russian T 72, supplied to the North Korean army, but with the application of composite armour.
The cannon is a modernized version of the 125 mm supplied to the T 72 and already used in other North Korean tanks. The weight is approximately 55 tons, powered by a 1200 hp engine. The vehicle is equipped with two grenade launchers and two anti-tank missiles, North Korean versions of the Russian Kornet. On the roof there appear to be sensors and smoke bomb launchers which are presumably part of countermeasures against anti-tank missiles.
M2020
Pyongyang last week warned that the South and the United States would pay a "heavy price" for the Freedom Shield drills and later announced that Kim had led a large-scale artillery exercise involving a unit that he said say, it was capable of hitting the South Korean capital.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited the headquarters of the army's Special Warfare Command on Wednesday during ongoing exercises between Washington and Seoul, which included the "mastery of advanced combat skills."
This included “clearance operations” inside North Korea’s “key facilities” in case of an attack by Pyongyang.
“If Kim Jong Un launches a war, you should become the world's strongest special warfare unit, capable of quickly eliminating the enemy's leadership,” Shin said during the visit.
So far this year, the North has declared South Korea its "principal enemy," abandoned agencies dedicated to reunification and rapprochement, and threatened war over "even 0.001 mm" of territorial violation.
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The article Kim Jong-un seen driving the most modern and mysterious North Korean tank comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/kim-jong-un-visto-alla-guida-del-piu-moderno-e-misterioso-carro-armato-nord-coreano/ on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:00:05 +0000.