The communist dictatorship also wants to “develop a new ICBM system, the main task of which will be a rapid nuclear counterattack”.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an “exponential increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal” to deal with its southern neighbor and the United States, signaling the continuation in 2023 of dangerous tensions on the Korean peninsula that already peaked in 2022 At the end of a major meeting in Pyongyang, the ruling Labor Party also announced that the country would develop “a new ICBM system, the main task of which will be rapid counter-nuclear attack,” the official KCNA news agency reported on Sunday.
“The current situation calls for intensified efforts to massively build up military strength to fully guarantee (North Korea’s) sovereignty, security and core interests in response to troubling military maneuvers by the United States and other hostile forces,” Kim Jong Un said in a statement reported by the party assembly, quoted by the agency. “This underscores the importance and necessity of mass production of tactical nuclear weapons and calls for an exponential increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal,” he continued.
Also readCryptocurrencies, illegal trade… How does North Korea finance its missiles?
In another story, KNCA reported Kim Jong Un’s comments that South Korea was now “completely within reach of North Korean nuclear strikes.” Tensions between North Korea and its southern neighbor, as well as the United States and Japan, have increased dramatically in recent months. The year 2022 has seen a record number of rocket launches from Pyongyang. Three short-range ballistic missiles were fired again by North Korea on Saturday, and another at dawn on Sunday. KCNA referred to “an extremely large target practice involving multiple rocket launchers.”
And on December 26, five North Korean drones invaded southern airspace, even overflying the northern capital Seoul. Despite a five-hour deployment of fighter jets and helicopters, the Southern Army failed to shoot down the drones in this raid, the first of its kind in five years.
“Let’s play with nuclear weapons”
For Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungman University, Kim Jong Un’s new comments indicate that North Korea is “preparing for the possibility of a real war following the current breakdown in inter-Korean relations.” If South Korea and its American ally respond, as is likely, by stepping up their joint military maneuvers, tensions between the two Koreas will reach “an unprecedented level” in 2023, he warns.
Also read Shootout between the two Koreas: ‘Kim Jong-un must always be discussed to exist, it’s tragically commonplace’
“It is reasonable to predict that the Korean Peninsula could become a second Ukraine if the situation is mismanaged,” adds this analyst. This isn’t the first time North Korea has announced mass production of nuclear bombs, said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
“The intent is that if North Korea mass-produces nuclear weapons, even without aggressive provocations, the United States will have no choice but to one day recognize North Korea as a nuclear state,” the analyst told AFP. “Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s message is something like, ‘Let’s play with nuclear weapons,'” he continued. According to him, the North Korean leader is trying to show that “North Korea will not ask for dialogue and that it will put pressure on South Korea and the United States, especially the United States, by strengthening its nuclear power.”
Kim Jong Un had already said at the end of November that he wanted to equip his country with “the most powerful strategic force in the world”. Two months earlier, North Korea had adopted a new doctrine making its status as a nuclear power “irreversible” and empowering it to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike in the event of an existential threat to its regime. Seoul and Washington give Pyongyang intent to soon conduct another nuclear test, which would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017. North Korean leaders say a credible nuclear deterrent is essential to their country’s survival, as it faces constant threats of aggression from the United States.
Also readCruise missiles and ballistic missiles: This arsenal North Korea is developing for a “nuclear counterattack.”
For Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, the recent hostile gestures from Pyongyang “could serve to scare South Korea into more dovish policies.” However, according to him, they risk creating the opposite effect and pushing Seoul to increase its military assets. “Unless China wants regional instability caused by an inter-Korean arms race on its doorstep, it needs to do more to contain Pyongyang in 2023,” Leif-Eric Easley said.