 |
| (Photo = Yonhap news) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Minyoung] Last month, Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, reportedly crashed due to worsening weather conditions during a drill to drop off the airborne unit. At that time, Chairman Kim's daughter, Joo-ae, accompanied him to watch the training with binoculars.
According to Yonhap News on the 3rd, a crash occurred during airborne training of the North Korean Air Training Corps on the 15th of last month. During the training, a number of soldiers reportedly fell and were seriously injured as strong winds prevented parachutes from spreading or tangled with each other. The dead included a young soldier in his early 20s. Kim attended the training with his daughter Joo-ae at the time and also guided the training himself.
There was a strong wind on the day of the training, but Chairman Kim was scheduled to observe, which led to speculation that he pushed ahead with the training and eventually led to the accident. Airborne descent training is heavily influenced by the weather. In the case of the South Korean military, it is known that it does not train when there is a wind stronger than 17 knots and 8.7 meters per second.
However, Korean Central News Agency did not report the accident in the related report last month.
A military official said, "We are closely watching North Korean military activities and military exercises."
AlphaBIZ Kim Minyoung(kimmy@alphabiz.co.kr)
