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Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***North KoreaIn early March, Kim Jong Un inspected a major operational training base in the western part of the country, stressing the need for the Korean People’s Army to intensify training and instructing new tasks for “practical actual-war drills to ensure victory in war.” His rationale for these stepped-up efforts was to for the army to be able to “contain the constant threat of the enemies with overwhelming force, successfully control even the slightest attempt to ignite a war, and correctly carry out the important mission in contingency…” This is consistent with repeated complaints about the frequency and intensity of what Pyongyang has described as “frantic” war drills conducted by the United States and South Korea and calls for greater war readiness.In the following weeks, Kim provided oversight to a number of drills, including artillery firing drills for large combined Korean People’s Army units, training of large combined tankmen’s units, and training of airborne paratroopers. A March 19 artillery drill was aimed at “proving” the “might and real war capabilities” of the 600-millimeter super-large multiple rocket launchers, which displayed “high mobility and accurate and strong striking power.” Kim described the weapon as the “core central striking means” and stressed the need to increase the number of batteries.North Korean reporting of these various drills stresses a “peace through strength” mission, while stressing the need to be ready to win a war in a contingency. However, this growing emphasis on war readiness and the revival of the country’s war industry start to raise questions about whether Kim is developing his own version of a songun (military first) policy and what that might mean for stability on the Korean Peninsula in an increasingly tense