North Korea conducts evacuation, blackout drills: report

NORTH Korea’s rogue leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly taken another step in his preparations for war, as the world remains on edge.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory, as his wife Ri Sol-Ju looks on. Picture: AFP

REPORTS of mass evacuation drills in North Korean district centres have heightened fears of an impending ballistic missile (ICBM) test.

But it could also be dictator Kim Jong-un once again deliberately stirring up unease among his population.

South Korean based NKNews cites several anonymous sources as telling it that several cities on the east coast of North Korea undertook the war-preparation drills, including blackout and evacuation scenarios, last week.

The capital Pyongyang was not among them.

North Korea in recent months has sparked global alarm by conducting a sixth nuclear test and test-launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while Trump and the North’s young ruler Kim Jong-un have traded threats of war and personal insults.

South Korean honour guards fire gun salutes during a welcoming ceremony for US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis at the Defence Ministry in Seoul. Picture: AFP

North Korea's intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 lifting off from the launching pad at an undisclosed location near Pyongyang. Picture: AFP

WAR GAMES

Such exercises have reportedly been rare in recent years.

“I have never heard of this type of training exercises before in North Korea, but am not surprised,” Chun In-bum, a recently retired three star lieutenant general from the South Korean army, told NKNews. “They must realise how serious the situation is.”

However, a North Korean defector told the news service that he remembered such drills from when he lived in Pyonyang “sometimes three times a year … especially at the time of military exercises of ROK and US army.”

Signs of normalcy ... Runners compete in the half-marathon in Pyongyang, North Korea, at the weekend. Picture: AP

This could indicate such drills are once again a part of Kim Jong-un’s ‘toolkit’ of techniques to keep the North Korean population firmly under his control.

Such drills encourage a sense of crisis.

This helps the hermit state justify its focus on military spending and posturing.

Commentators noted that World War II style blackout drills (where all light sources are turned off at night) have limited value in a modern era awash with GPS and other navigation technologies.

“In this day and age of precision bombing and all weather capabilities, (such) North Korean civil exercises either come from ignorance of modern war or just a propaganda campaign to frightening their own people and induce obedience,” lieutenant general Chun said.

This undated picture released at the weekend shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory, as his wife Ri Sol-Ju, right, looks on. Picture: AFP

It’s not the first time North Korea has put on a display of preparing for war.

In 2013, Pyonyang vehicles were covered in camouflage netting and diplomats urged to evacuate at a time of heightened rhetoric between North and South.

Similarly, in 1994 air raid drills in the capital and regional cities were almost daily events.

But the report notes North Korea may need to conduct at least one more ICBM test, this time on a long-range trajectory, to prove it has the technology to do so.

Such a launch is likely to further inflame the North’s already volatile relationship with Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, left, and South Korea's Defence Minister Song Young-Moo hold a joint press conference after the Security Consultative Meeting at the weekend. Picture: AFP

MIXED MESSAGES

The exercises come ahead of Trump’s first presidential visit to South Korea next month as part of his Asia tour which also includes Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

All eyes will be on President Trump’s message to the North and Kim.

Trump is expected to deliver a speech at the South’s parliament and to visit an US military base during a November 7-8 trip to Seoul.

Some analysts fear Kim Jong-un may be planning to stage a missile launch or nuclear test to coincide with Trump’s talk.

The president’s recent remark that “only one thing will work” with the North fuelled concerns of a potential conflict on the divided peninsula where the 1950-53 Korean War had left millions dead.

A US Air Force B-1B bomber, and two South Korean fighter jets F-15K. Picture: AP

But US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who has just visited Seoul ahead of the President, has repeatedly stressed a diplomatic solution to ease tension, saying Washington was “not rushing to war” and its goal was “not war.”

Some Trump advisers have said US military options are limited when Pyongyang could launch an artillery barrage on the South’s capital Seoul — only about 50 kilometres from the border and home to 10 million people.

The North is estimated to have some 10,000 artillery pieces and at least 50 short-range missiles stationed along its heavily fortified border with the South.