N. Korean leader tells military to ‘sweep away’ South Koreans

N. Korean leader tells military to ‘sweep away’ South Koreans. December. 03, 2016 07:06. by Sung-Ha Joo zsh75@donga.com. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told his military to "wipe out” South Korea during his inspection of an artillery drill in Wonsan, Gangwon Province on Thursday, a day after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) announced its Resolution No. 2321 for stronger sanctions on Pyongyang. According to the North’s ruling party daily, Rodong Sinmun, Kim ordered the North Korean military to line up along the east coast near Wonsan and fire at once at an island.

"If a war breaks out, such a deadly strike should be inflicted upon the South Korean forces to completely break their will of counteraction at the start and make a clean sweep of them," Kim was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun. Kim also escalated his anti-South Korea rhetoric by saying that the gun sound of victory made by the artillery units on the southwestern front would “add wings to the (Korean) People’s Army units advancing southward.”

The newspaper said that participants in the drill included the artillery units on the southwestern frontline islands that would wipe out the Sixth Marine Brigade under South Korea’s Northwestern Islands Defense Command and intermediate-to-long-distance artillery subunits in charge of striking South Korea’s governing organs such as the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Kim’s orders seem to be targeted at the North Korean military’s recent maritime firing drills marking the sixth anniversary of the Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 29.