North Korea’s Kim Jong Un inspects defense industry, calls artillery core of war deterrence

Kim's framing of artillery as the "basic core" of both deterrence and warfighting signals that Pyongyang's modernization push is being translated into doctrine, not just hardware. The emphasis on changes to force composition and war-response plans suggests the restructuring touches how the military would actually fight, which matters most for South Korea and the U.S.-South Korea alliance. Whether these stated gains translate into observable shifts in deployments or exercises is the open question.