SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will launch three additional military spy satellites, build more nuclear weapons and introduce advanced unmanned combat equipment in 2024, as he called for an “overwhelming” war readiness to cope must confront US-led measures, state media reported on Sunday.
Kim's comments, made during a key meeting of the ruling Workers' Party to set state targets for next year, suggest he will continue a series of weapons tests to assert his influence in future diplomacy ahead of the US presidential election in November to increase next year. Observers say Kim may eventually offer to halt North Korea's testing activities and take other limited denuclearization steps in return for sanctions relief, but he has no intention of completely giving up his growing nuclear arsenal.
During the five-day meeting that ended Saturday, Kim said moves by the United States and its supporters against North Korea were unprecedented this year and had brought the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
“The serious situation requires us to accelerate work to acquire overwhelming war response capabilities and thorough and perfect military readiness to suppress any kind of provocation by the enemy in one fell swoop,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Kim announced plans to launch three more military spy satellites next year in addition to the country's first reconnaissance satellite, which was launched in November. He also directed authorities to advance work on producing more nuclear weapons and developing various types of advanced unmanned combat equipment such as armed drones and powerful electronic warfare devices, KCNA said.
Kim has focused on modernizing his nuclear and missile arsenals since his high-risk nuclear diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 amid a dispute over international sanctions against the North. Since last year, Kim's military has fired more than 100 ballistic missiles, many of them nuclear-capable weapons, at the U.S. mainland and South Korea in violation of U.N. bans.
The United States and South Korea responded by expanding their military exercises and deploying U.S. strategic assets such as bombers, aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine. North Korea describes the moves as US-led invasion rehearsals.
South Korean intelligence said last week that North Korea was likely to launch military provocations and cyberattacks ahead of South Korea's parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.
“Pyongyang may be waiting for the U.S. presidential election to see what provocations it can win in the next government,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“The Kim regime has closed the political door on denuclearization negotiations but could offer rhetorical restraint and a trial freeze in exchange for sanctions relief,” Easley said. “Although North Korea has no intention of giving up nuclear weapons, it may seek to extort money for behaving like a so-called responsible nuclear power.”
Amid intensifying confrontations with the United States and its partners, North Korea has sought to increase cooperation with Russia and China, which have repeatedly blocked attempts by the United States and other countries to increase U.N. sanctions against the North over its banned missile tests. The United States and South Korea accuse North Korea of supplying conventional weapons such as artillery and ammunition to Russia in return for high-tech Russian technologies to boost its own military programs.
Julianne Smith, U.S. permanent representative to NATO, said earlier this month that the U.S. believes the suspected Russian technologies North Korea is seeking involve fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production facilities or Materials of this type are related. Smith said U.S. intelligence suggests North Korea provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and ammunition.
South Korean officials said Russian support likely enabled North Korea to put its spy satellite into orbit for the first time on November 21. Many foreign experts are skeptical about the satellite's ability to capture militarily significant high-resolution images. But South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said in November that Russia could help North Korea produce higher resolution satellite photos.