Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, has been stepping up military activities every 2-3 days. Following the inspection of conventional weapons, he has been gradually increasing the intensity of military activities, from mass firing training with super-large artillery to testing solid-fuel engines for medium-to-long-range hypersonic missiles.
According to North Korean media reports, including the Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, on the 21st, Kim made six military site inspections in the past two weeks, from the 6th to the 19th.
On the 6th, he inspected training facilities and outdoor mobile training at a critical operational training base in the western district. Then, on the 7th, he directed artillery firing training of a large combined unit, including units tasked with striking Seoul, escalating threats against South Korea.
Later, on the 13th, he emphasized the “completion of war preparation” by directing a tank crew competition using new tanks, and two days later on the 15th, he directed training of the Airborne Infantry Unit (as the South Korean Airborne Unit) with his daughter Ju Ae.
The consecutive military actions were analyzed as a countermeasure against the Freedom Shield joint exercise between the U.S. and South Korea from the 4th to the 14th. However, until then, it seemed to be verifying conventional weapons such as cannons and tanks and checking the military’s border posture.
Then, on the 18th, a mass firing drill was conducted using the 600mm super-large artillery (KN-25). North Korea’s missile launch was the first in over two months since the hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on January 14th. North Korea also conducted an air explosion simulation test.
The next day, Kim directed a ground ejection test of a solid-fuel engine for the new medium-to-long-range hypersonic missiles. It can be interpreted as pushing for performance improvement by conducting additional engine tests following the first test of a solid-fuel engine for hypersonic missiles in November last year.
Although the series of military actions conducted so far are hard to see as “high-intensity” provocations, they seem to increase in intensity gradually. North Korea is analyzed as unable to show its firepower due to the schedule of the Lianghui (National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) in China, its ally, and the presidential election in Russia.
North Korea’s next step is expected to be an additional test launch to verify the performance of the newly tested solid-fuel engine for hypersonic missiles.
There is also speculation that North Korea will launch its second military reconnaissance satellite in April. In April, North Korea’s significant anniversaries and holidays, such as the “Day of the Sun” (15th), the anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (25th), are concentrated.
However, there is an opinion that North Korea will refrain from high-intensity provocations for now, as the 4th round of the 2nd preliminaries of the Asian region group of the 2026 North Central America World Cup between North Korea and Japan is scheduled to be held at the Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang on the 26th, and a Russian government delegation, including a Russian art troupe, is staying in North Korea.
