2024-01-01 06:57:00
Kim Jong-un threatened to destroy South Korea and the United States with an unprecedented nuclear attack. (Europa Press)
The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, asked his high military command to use maximum force once morest South Korea and the United States if they begin a military confrontation, the regime’s propaganda media reported this Monday.
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In a meeting with military leaders in Pyongyang on New Year’s Eve, Kim said his armed forces must “annihilate” the enemy if provoked, the official KCNA news agency reported.
“If the enemy chooses military confrontation once morest the DPRK (North Korea), our military must deal a mortal blow to completely annihilate them by mobilizing the strongest means without hesitation,” Kim said.
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Seoul and Washington have intensified defense cooperation in the face of the wave of weapons tests carried out by the North last year.
Kim’s statement recalls the threats he made at his party’s year-end meetings regarding a nuclear attack once morest Seoul and orders to shore up the military arsenal in preparation for a war, which in his opinion might “break out at any moment.”
During a meeting with his high military command, the North Korean dictator said that his armed forces must “annihilate” the enemy if they initiate a military confrontation. (REUTERS)
During meetings of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim accused the United States of being a “military threat” and called on the military to “suppress all South Korean territory by mobilizing all physical means… including nuclear forces” in the event of a armed confrontation.
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He announced that he will not seek reconciliation and reunification with Seoul due to the “uncontrollable crisis” that, according to him, South Korea and the United States have caused.
According to the North Korean regime, thinking regarding reconciliation or unification is a “mistake” and advocated “stop trying to reconcile with people who call you their worst enemy.”
Shortly before, Kim noted that North Korea’s political goal for 2024 is to strengthen the country’s nuclear capacity to “respond quickly to a possible nuclear crisis and mobilize all possible means, including nuclear force.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has promised to keep military provocations from the North at bay, with an expanded deterrence system with Washington that will take effect in early 2024.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to keep the North’s military provocations at bay with an expanded deterrence system. (Europa Press)
In his New Year’s message, Yoon said such a system “will fundamentally deter any North Korean nuclear and missile threat.”
“By the first half of this year, we will complete the strengthened extended deterrence framework of the Republic of Korea (official name of South Korea) and the United States to fundamentally deter any nuclear and missile threats from North Korea,” said the president in his speech.
Yoon stressed that the current situation on the peninsula, with Pyongyang turning its back on dialogue and investing increasingly in the modernization of its arsenals and armed forces, requires a show of force that guarantees “genuine and lasting peace.”
The so-called extended deterrence is the mechanism by which Washington undertakes to protect Seoul from an attack by Pyongyang and, since this year, it also includes the nuclear option.
At the beginning of December, both countries held the second meeting of the Nuclear Consultation Group (NCG) and agreed to establish a joint strategy by the middle of this year in order to strengthen the deterrent framework in the face of North Korea’s weapons advances.
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