Kim Jong Un, drove a “new type of combat tank” during a supervision of military exercises, the country’s state media reported on Thursday.
Wearing a leather jacket, Kim greeted uniformed soldiers and supervised exercises with live ammunition at a command post, alongside generals, according to images published by state media.
He then “got into a new type of combat tank, took command and drove the tank,” said the state-run KCNA news agency.
The news was released on the last day of annual joint exercises between the United States and South Korea, in which troops practiced intercepting missiles and air strikes.
North Korea, which has a nuclear arsenal, has criticized the exercises, which it considers to be training for an invasion.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction with the excellent attack power” of the new tank and stressed the “importance of vehicles in modern warfare and the need to organize intensive exercises that simulate a real war”.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen in recent months as the North has intensified its weapons tests and strengthened cooperation with the United States and the South’s joint military exercises.
North Korea has raised its belligerent tone and declared the South its “main enemy”, threatening war at the slightest violation of its territory.