North Korean leader calls army to achieve 'radical turn’ in preparing for war

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged his army to achieve a "radical turn" in preparing for war, state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.

Kim "called upon all the units of the entire army to bring about a radical turn in making preparations for war in constant readiness while remaining on full alert," while observing the flying group of the Guards 1st Air Wing on Thursday.

The drills included anti-air missile sub-units, radar sub-units and electronic warfare sub-units, a new-type long-range precision guided glide bomb and a drill of a raid on targets.

FOREIGN MINISTRY SLAMS US FOR LISTING NORTH KOREA AS UNCOOPERATIVE STATE IN COMBATING TERRORISM

The international community should "reject" the US decision to re-designate Pyongyang as an uncooperative state in the fight against terrorism, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday in a statement that was published Saturday by KCNA.

The US re-designated Pyongyang as an uncooperative state in combating terrorism on Tuesday alongside Cuba, Iran, Syria and Venezuela.

"Such unilateral and malicious designating campaign staged by the US every year should be duly denounced and rejected by the international community as it is a smear stratagem to brand the independent sovereign states as 'state sponsor of terrorism' and make them targets of international criticism," said the Foreign Ministry, which called the US' "anti-terrorism" advocation "nothing but an excuse to justify interference in internal affairs of other countries."

"No one has asked the US to lead international anti-terrorist efforts, nor has anyone invested it with such power," it said, adding that Pyongyang "resolutely" opposes "all forms of terrorism threatening international peace and security."