North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again threatened Seoul with nuclear strikes and ordered military preparations to be accelerated for a “war” that could be unleashed on the peninsula “at any time,” state agency KCNA reported on Sunday.
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The leader attacked the United States in a lengthy speech at the end of a five-day meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, a year-end high mass that sets the country's strategic directions.
During the meeting, the ruling party announced the launch of three new spy satellites in 2024, the construction of drones and the development of electronic warfare capabilities, according to KCNA.
After two consecutive failures in May and June, North Korea successfully launched its first military observation satellite into orbit in November.
South Korean intelligence agencies believe Pyongyang received crucial technological help from Russia, where Kim Jong Un visited in September and met with President Vladimir Putin, to successfully launch this satellite, the Malligyong, into orbit. -1″.
AFP
North Korea conducted a record number of ballistic missile tests in 2023, violating numerous UN resolutions that prohibit them.
It enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution and successfully tested the Hwasong-18, the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its arsenal capable of reaching the United States.
Kim Jong Un accused Washington of “various types of military threats” in his speech and ordered his armed forces to maintain “an overwhelming war response capability,” according to KCNA.
It is “a fait accompli that a war can break out on the Korean Peninsula at any time due to the enemies' reckless invasion attempts,” the leader said.
As a deterrent, US forces have sent the nuclear submarine USS Missouri, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and a B-52 strategic bomber to South Korea in recent months, each time drawing North Korea's ire.
North Korea had previously described Washington's use of strategic weapons as a “deliberate provocation of nuclear war.”
AFP
“We must respond quickly to a possible nuclear crisis and further accelerate preparations to pacify the entire territory of South Korea by mobilizing all physical means and forces, including nuclear weapons, in case of emergency,” Kim Jong-un said.
Pyongyang views the military exercises on its doorstep as a dress rehearsal for a future invasion of its territory and has long viewed its missile tests as necessary “countermeasures.”
At the party meeting, the leader said he no longer sought reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, citing the “persistent and uncontrollable crisis situation” that he said had been triggered by Seoul and Washington.
AFP
The two Koreas began a process of rapprochement in 2018, marked by three meetings between Kim Jong Un and then South Korean President Moon Jae.
But relations between the two Koreas deteriorated to a low point this year after Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite prompted Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military deal meant to defuse tensions.
“I think it is a mistake that we should no longer make to regard those who declare us the 'main enemy' (…) as partners for reconciliation and unification,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.
He therefore ordered a reshuffle of the administrations responsible for relations with the South in order to “fundamentally change the direction”.
Leif Easley, a professor of international relations at Ewha University in Seoul, said Pyongyang's emphasis on its “significant military capabilities” was likely aimed at hiding the country's economic problems this year.
“Pyongyang's belligerent rhetoric suggests that its military actions are aimed not only at deterrence, but also at domestic politics and international coercion,” he said.