North Korea’s Kim to visit China for September 3 military parade

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will soon visit China at Xi Jinping’s invitation to attend the 80th anniversary of World War II’s end. Before the announcement, Kim inspected sniper and special forces, stressing their expansion as a military priority

Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will soon travel to China to attend the country’s 80th anniversary marking the end of World War II at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, state media reported on Thursday.

Kim “will soon visit the People’s Republic of China at the invitation of Xi Jinping … to participate in celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” Yonhap reported, quoting the Korean Central News Agency.

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China observes September 3 as the anniversary of what it describes as victory in the struggle against Japan in 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War II.

Earlier in the day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had inspected sniper and special operations units at a training base, stressing that bolstering special operations forces is the “top priority” in the military’s war preparations.

Kim visited the special operations training base under the military’s General Staff the previous day and inspected the units’ training, including their armament and training methods.

He described snipers as handpicked forces assigned to important missions and trained to carry out independent and autonomous military actions, saying that dramatically bolstering special operations and sniper capabilities is an “important task” in the country’s military buildup.

“Thoroughly arming special operations forces to make them the pivotal force in war operations and the strongest combat groups is the top priority task in our military’s war preparation,” Kim said.

The leader also noted that the party’s military commission will review organising a central sniper training centre within the General Staff. Kim also inspected a new indigenous sniper rifle distributed to military units, describing it as a superior “long-range precision” weapon and calling for the modernisation of armaments and the development of innovative warfare tactics.

He also ordered improving the quality of camouflage combat suits for snipers to match the conditions and weather of their mission areas before overseeing a live-fire drill by the sniper unit and a training session of special operations forces.

The KCNA published the report on the last day of South Korea and the United States’ large-scale joint military exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield, which began on August 18. North Korea has issued back-to-back criticism of the military drills, denouncing them as an expression of intent to “invade” the country.