The instruction came at a Sunday meeting convened by Kim with the “commanding officers of divisions and brigades across the entire army”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported in an English dispatch.

Kim “set forth plans for … strengthening the first-line units and other major units in military and technical aspects as an important decision to more thoroughly deter war”, the report said.

He added that the army’s “strategic action” would be “renewed” and that “a great change” would be made in efforts to deter war, without elaborating.

“He stressed that the commanding officers at all levels of the army should continue to raise their class consciousness and outlook on the arch enemy,” KCNA reported, in an apparent reference to South Korea.

Kim also talked about the ruling party’s “policy of territorial defence on strengthening the first-line units in the southern border and turning the border line into an impregnable fortress”.

The remarks came as a North Korean women’s football team arrived in the South on Sunday, marking the first visit by a North Korean sports team in nearly eight years to play in the Asian Champions League semi-finals.

The visit comes despite inter-Korean relations remaining at a low point, with Pyongyang unresponsive to Seoul’s repeated offers for unconditional dialogue.