North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to expand his country’s nuclear capabilities against rival South Korea “exponentially.”
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to expand his country’s nuclear capabilities against rival South Korea “exponentially,” indicating he would escalate his military brinkmanship in the new year despite sanctions from abroad and economic woes at home.
During the party meeting, Kim said Yoon’s government compelled North Korea to switch to “a mass-production of tactical nuclear weapons” and “an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal” as a “main orientation” of its nuclear policy for 2023. The South’s Defense Ministry warned Sunday that Kim’s regime “will meet its end” if it tries to use its nuclear weapons. “It must realize that the only way to improve the lives of its people is through denuclearization,” the ministry said in a statement.
North Korea launched more missiles in 2022 than any previous year. Kim’s threat to increase his nuclear arsenal in the new year, although not unexpected, has raised the prospect of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, as Yoon would not shy away from confronting the North, said Lee Byong-chul, a North Korea expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul.
Kim’s failed diplomacy with Trump left him convinced that “regardless of which party took power in Washington, the United States had no intention to bargain with North Korea” and that “securing a strong nuclear force was the only way for the North to counter its pressure and threat,” Chung Sung-Yoon, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said in a paper last month.
North Korea first conducted ICBM tests in 2017. But after Kim’s talks with Trump failed, North Korea has escalated pressure on the South, testing a series of short-range ballistic missiles that it said could deliver nuclear warheads at South Korean targets. In recent months, it has also raised tensions by flying a fleet of warplanes, as well as by firing artillery and rockets, near the inter-Korea land and maritime borders.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
North Korea fires missile toward sea, South Korea saysSEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the North's eastern waters Saturday morning, South Korea's military said. It’s the first missile launch by North Korea in eight days, and comes five days after South Korea accused Pyongyang of flying five drones into South Korea’s airspace for the first time since 2017.
Read more »
North Korea fires missile toward sea, South Korea saysSouth Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff gave no further details on the launch, such as the specific type of weapon Pyongyang launched or how far it travelled.
Read more »
North Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles just days after flying drones into South, Seoul saysNorth Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward the North's eastern waters Saturday morning, South Korea's military said.
Read more »
North Korea fires 3 missiles amid tensions over drone flightsSouth Korea this week accused North Korea of flying five drones across the border for the first time in five years and responded by sending its own drones toward the North.
Read more »