North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed an “exponential” increase in his country’s nuclear military capabilities, rejecting disarmament deals and emphasizing that North Korea’s nuclear status is “irreversible.”
According to state media KCNA, Kim recently examined a newly functioning nuclear material production facility and remarked that production capacity for weapons-grade nuclear material has reached more than double its previous level over the past five years.
During a speech commemorating North Korea’s founding anniversary, Kim emphasized the necessity for the country to enhance its “nuclear capability and its readiness to utilize it effectively at any moment to safeguard the state’s security rights.”
Kim asserted that a robust military presence is essential to confront the various threats posed by the United States and its allies. He further indicated that North Korea perceives a “grave threat” stemming from what it regards as a U.S.-led military alliance based on nuclear capabilities in the region.
“The obvious conclusion is that the nuclear force of the DPRK and the posture capable of properly using it for ensuring the state’s right to security in any time should be more thoroughly perfected,” Kim said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim said North Korea’s military power will develop in an “accelerated and continued” manner, and he will not set a limit on attaining the goal. “The DPRK will steadily strengthen its nuclear force capable of fully coping with any threatening acts imposed by its nuclear-armed rival states and redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat,” he said.
In September 2023, North Korea stipulated the policy of strengthening its nuclear force in its constitution. At a year-end party meeting in 2022, Kim called for boosting the number of its nuclear arsenal exponentially and mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s deputy defense minister for policy, Cho Chang-rae, along with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, denounced Pyongyang’s recent efforts to diversify its nuclear delivery systems, as well as its tests and launches of multiple ballistic missiles.
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