Kim Jong Un vows ‘offensive’ nuclear expansion

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more “practical and offensive” ways in the face of his rivals’ “frantic” military exercises, state media said.

The comments came during a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, held amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the US-South Korean joint military drills have intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the commission’s members discussed unspecified issues related to strengthening defence capacities and perfecting war preparations to counter the threat posed by the allies’ drills, which the North portrays as invasion rehearsals.

Mr Kim reviewed the country’s frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent with “increasing speed on a more practical and offensive” manner, KCNA said.

The report did not specify the directions the North intended to take.

KCNA also published photos of Mr Kim talking to officials while pointing to certain spots on a blurred map that appeared to be of South Korea.

KCNA said Mr Kim and the military commission members analysed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula “in which the US imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet traitors are getting ever more undisguised in their moves for a war of aggression” and discussed preparation for proposed military actions that their enemy has no way of counteracting.

The US and South Korean militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in years last month and separately held joint naval and air force drills involving a US aircraft carrier strike group and nuclear-capable US bombers.

KCNA claimed the drills simulated an all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership.

The United States and South Korea have described their exercises as defensive in nature and said that the expansion of those drills are necessary to cope with the North’s evolving threats. South Korea’s government did not immediately respond to Mr Kim’s comments.

North Korea in 2023 so far has fired around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that demonstrated potential range to reach the US mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

North Korea was already coming off a record year in weapons testing, after launching nearly 70 missiles in 2022.

Experts say Mr Kim’s provocative run in weapons displays is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic concessions from a position of strength.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging crippling US-led sanctions against the North and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear weapons program.

South Korean officials say North Korea may soon up the ante by staging more provocative displays of its military might, including its first nuclear test detonation since 2017.

North Korea last month unveiled what appeared to be a new nuclear warhead designed to fit on various delivery systems as Mr Kim called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his growing range of weapons.

North Korea has also issued veiled threats to test fire an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific, which would be seen as a major provocation as its previous long-range tests were conducted on high angles to avoid the territories of neighbours.

North Korea also previously said it aims to finish preparations to launch a military spy satellite into space by April, an event its rivals would almost certainly see as a test of ICBM technology banned by international sanctions.