North Korea's Kim orders heightened war preparations

Kim said the military must "dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation," KCNA reported.

"Our army should ... steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness," KCNA quoted Kim as telling the troops.

KCNA did not mention whether Kim directly referred to the drills by the US and South Korean military. He inspected troops conducting actual manoeuvres under conditions simulating actual war, KCNA said.