SEOUL: North Korea’s top army officials have said they will expand and intensify military drills to ensure their readiness for war, state media reported Tuesday, ahead of a massive parade.
The pledge came at a Monday meeting overseen by leader Kim Jong Un and follows last week’s staging of joint air drills by South Korea and the United States.
The agenda was topped by “the issue of constantly expanding and intensifying the operation and combat drills of the (Korean People’s Army) ... strictly perfecting the preparedness for war,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The meeting of North Korea’s central military commission comes as commercial satellite imagery suggests “extensive parade preparations” are underway in Pyongyang ahead of key state holidays this month.
North Korea celebrates the founding anniversary of its armed forces on Wednesday and the “Day of the Shining Star” on February 16. The latter is the birthday of Kim Jong Il, son of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung and father of Kim Jong Un.
Seoul and Washington have moved to bolster joint military drills following a year of sanctions-busting weapons tests, infuriating Pyongyang, which sees them as rehearsals for invasion.
Last week, the security allies staged joint air drills featuring strategic bombers and stealth fighters, prompting Pyongyang to warn such exercises could “ignite an all-out showdown.”
The joint exercises, their first this year, came a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart vowed to boost security cooperation to counter an increasingly belligerent nuclear-armed North.
North Korea’s foreign minister has said the move to ramp up joint drills crossed “an extreme red line.”
Experts say Monday’s meeting of North Korea’s top brass aimed to highlight the country’s readiness to face down upcoming joint military drills between South Korea and the United States — and also stress it was prepared for an actual war.
“North Korea is hinting about the possibility of military action in the future in the name of operational and combat training and war preparedness,” said Hong Min, researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, including mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons and developing new missiles for nuclear counterstrikes.
Kim has also said his country must “overwhelmingly beef up military muscle” in 2023 in response to what Pyongyang calls US and South Korean hostility.
North Korea pledges ‘expanded, intensified’ military drills
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North Korea pledges ‘expanded, intensified’ military drills
- Pledge came after South Korea and US staged joint air drills
Prabowo, Trump expected to sign Indonesia-US tariff deal in January 2026
- Deal will mean US tariffs on Indonesian products are cut from a threatened 32 percent to 19 percent
- Jakarta committed to scrap tariffs on more than 99 percent of US goods
JAKARTA: Indonesia expects to sign a tariff deal with the US in early 2026 after reaching an agreement on “all substantive issues,” Jakarta's chief negotiator said on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Washington this week to finalize an Indonesia-US trade deal, following a series of discussions that took place after the two countries agreed on a framework for negotiations in July.
“All substantive issues laid out in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade have been agreed upon by the two sides, including both the main and technical issues,” Hartarto said in an online briefing.
Officials from both countries are now working to set up a meeting between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump.
It will take place after Indonesian and US technical teams meet in the second week of January for a legal scrubbing, or a final clean-up of an agreement text.
“We are expecting that the upcoming technical process will wrap up in time as scheduled, so that at the end of January 2026 President Prabowo and President Trump can sign the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Hartarto said.
Indonesian trade negotiators have been in “intensive” talks with their Washington counterparts since Trump threatened to levy a 32 percent duty on Indonesian exports.
Under the July framework, US tariffs on Indonesian imports were lowered to 19 percent, with Jakarta committing to measures to balance trade with Washington, including removing tariffs on more than 99 percent of American imports and scrapping all non-tariff barriers facing American companies.
Jakarta also pledged to import $15 billion worth of energy products and $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products such as soybeans, wheat and cotton, from the US.
“Indonesia will also get tariff exemptions on top Indonesian goods, such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa,” Hartarto said.
“This is certainly good news, especially for Indonesian industries directly impacted by the tariff policy, especially labor-intensive sectors that employ around 5 million workers.”
In the past decade, Indonesia has consistently posted trade surpluses with the US, its second-largest export market after China.
From January to October, data from the Indonesian trade ministry showed two-way trade valued at nearly $36.2 billion, with Jakarta posting a $14.9 billion surplus.
