N.K. leader orders troops to keep vigilance amid tensions

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his troops to maintain maximum vigilance as the North‘s fighters and warships hit targets in live-fire military maneuvers, Pyongyang’s state media reported Thursday.

His inspection of the drills by the country‘s army, navy and air force came as the communist country repeatedly threatened to launch a “sacred” war against South Korea over Seoul’s defamation of the dignity of Kim and his late father, former leader Kim Jong-il.

A South Korean military unit in Incheon, a port west of Seoul, posted photos of the two Kims inside a barracks with accompanying text that reads “Let‘s beat Kim Jong-il to death! Let’s strike Kim Jong-un to death!”

Kim “instructed the officers and men of the three services to think of battle fields at all times, whether they are in sleep or in dreams, adding that they should always keep themselves on such maximum alert as they are just before opening fire,” the North‘s Korean Central News Agency said in an English dispatch.

He also ordered his troops to “mercilessly wipe out the enemies with arms of justice and revenge once they go into action,” according to the dispatch from Pyongyang.

The supreme commander, believed to be in his late 20s, has made frequent trips to military units in an apparent attempt to bolster support of the military, the key backbone of his regime.

The latest inspection trip came days after Kim placed his troops in the border village of Panmunjom on alert and instructed navy units along the western coast to step up combat preparations.

South Korea has brushed off the North’s war rhetoric and warned of a powerful retaliation against North Korea if provoked again. It has strengthened its defense posture following the North‘s two deadly attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers. (Yonhap News)