DPRK leader signs order of battle

Photo released by KCNA news agency on Aug. 26, 2012 shows top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un delivering a speech during a banquet celebrating the 52nd anniversary of "The August 25", which commemorates the late leader Kim Jong Il's start of the Songun (military first) revolutionary leadership. [Photo: Xinhua/KCNA]

North Korean top leader Kim Jong Un has signed an order of battle in response to the ongoing South Korea-U.S. large-scale joint military drills, the official news agency KCNA reported Sunday.

During a speech marking the 52nd anniversary of the start of the "military-first revolutionary leadership" of his late father Kim Jong Il, Kim criticized the joint drills targeting DPRK and urged the Korean People's Army (KPA) to stay on high alert against "reckless moves" by the enemies.

Kim examined and signed an operation plan aiming to fight possible attacks by South Korea and the United States, according to KCNA.

"If the enemies fire even a single shell on our inviolable territory and territorial waters, the KPA should deal prompt deadly blows at them and make an all-out counter-offensive to achieve national reunification," Kim was quoted as saying.

Kim, also supreme commander of the KPA, vowed on Aug. 18 to "turn the west sea into a graveyard of the invaders" during a visit to a front-line artillery unit near the tense western sea border.

The South Korea-U.S. joint war games, code-named Ulchi Freedom Guardian, started on Monday and would last for 12 days. Some 56,000 South Korean troops and 30,000 U.S. soldiers are involved. The two countries said the exercises were "defensive in nature."