2023-12-31 12:22:00
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sputnik/Vladimir Smirnov/Pool via REUTERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un once once more threatened to launch a nuclear attack once morest South Korea and ordered to accelerate military preparations in the face of a “war” that might “break out at any moment,” the state agency KCNA reported this Sunday.
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The leader harshly criticized the United States in a long speech at the end of a five-day meeting of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, an annual meeting in which the country’s strategic course is set.
During that 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, KCNA reported.
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Pyongyang successfully launched a military spy satellite into orbit in November and has since claimed it has provided images of both US and South Korean military sites.
This year it also conducted a record number of weapons tests, including the launch of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while blaming the United States for growing threats.
In this undated photo provided Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his daughter and an official watch what they say is an intercontinental ballistic missile launched from an undisclosed location in Korea. from North. Independent journalists were not allowed access to the event. (Korea Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
During the meeting, Kim accused the United States of posing “various types of military threat” and ordered his military to closely monitor the security situation on the peninsula and “always respond with an overwhelming attitude.”
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“A war can break out at any time on the peninsula due to the enemies’ reckless moves to invade us,” Kim said.
South Korea, Japan and the United States stepped up their defense cooperation this year, in the face of growing nuclear and missile threats from Pyongyang, and recently activated a system to share real-time data on North Korean missile launches.
Earlier this month, a US nuclear-powered submarine arrived in the South Korean port of Busan, and Washington sent long-range bombers to conduct maneuvers with Seoul and Tokyo.
Kim Jong Un views a missile launcher before the launch of a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile during what North Korea says is a drill at an unknown location on December 18, 2023 in this image released by the Central News Agency from Korea. KCNA via REUTERS
For Pyongyang, the sending of strategic weapons, such as B-52 bombers, to joint maneuvers on the Korean Peninsula are “intentionally provocative actions by the United States for a nuclear war.”
“We must respond quickly to a possible nuclear crisis and continue to accelerate preparations to pacify the entire territory of South Korea by mobilizing all physical means and forces, including nuclear, in case of emergency,” Kim said.
At the meeting, Kim said he would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, highlighting a “persistent and uncontrollable crisis situation” on the peninsula, which he claimed was triggered by Washington and Seoul.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their worst moments, following the North launched a spy satellite that led Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at reducing tensions on the peninsula.
“I think it is a mistake that we should not continue to make regarding people who declare us as their ‘main enemy’… as someone with whom to seek reconciliation and reunification,” KCNA reported, quoting Kim.
A photograph released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at an undisclosed location in North Korea. EFE/EPA/KCNA
Kim ordered the development of policies to reorganize the departments that handle border affairs, in order to “radically change course.”
Leif Easley, a professor of international relations at Ewha University in Seoul, said North Korea’s emphasis on its “significant nuclear capabilities” was actually intended to hide the country’s limited economic achievements this year.
“A lot of what the state-controlled media publishes is propaganda,” Easley said. “Pyongyang’s bellicose rhetoric suggests that its military measures are not only regarding deterrence but also regarding its domestic politics and international coercion.”
The North declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year and assures that its nuclear program is key to its survival.
The United Nations Security Council adopted several resolutions urging North Korea to stop its ballistic and nuclear programs since its first nuclear test in 2006.
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