North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for the country’s army companies to be transformed into elite, self-sufficient combat units, emphasizing a renewed push for military readiness during a high-level gathering in Pyongyang. State media reported the directives on Saturday following a two-day conference of company commanders.
The meeting, held on October 22 and 23, marked the first military-wide gathering of its kind since the Ninth Congress of North Korea’s ruling party convened in February. State reporting indicated that the conference underscored Kim’s consistent policy priority of strengthening the nation’s armed forces and accelerating defense capabilities.
Addressing the assembled commanders, Kim urged every company to fully prepare to achieve the overarching objectives of what state media described as the new-era military build-up. Calling on troops to build the strongest possible army, Kim explicitly encouraged participants to speed up a domestic military revolution tailored to the regime’s ideological and strategic specifications.
The policy direction builds upon broader defense goals established earlier in the year. During the ruling party’s Ninth Congress in February, which outlined the country’s policy trajectory for the ensuing five-year period, Kim laid out instructions for bolstering conventional armed forces while simultaneously reaffirming long-term efforts to develop and expand nuclear weapons and advanced missile systems.
