Kim calls for ‘exponential increase’ in North Korea’s N-arsenal

Published January 2, 2023
An image released from Korean Central News Agency on Sunday shows a ceremony of donating 600mm Super-large Multiple Launch Rocket System, outside the office of Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.—AFP
An image released from Korean Central News Agency on Sunday shows a ceremony of donating 600mm Super-large Multiple Launch Rocket System, outside the office of Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.—AFP

SEOUL: Kim Jong Un has called for an “exponential” increase in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, including mass producing tactical nuclear weapons and developing new missiles for nuclear counterstrikes, state media said on Sunday.

In a report at the end of a key party meeting in Pyongyang, Kim said the country must “overwhelmingly beef up the military muscle” in 2023 in response to what he called US and South Korean hostility, the official KCNA reported.

Claiming that Washington and Seoul were set on “isolating and stifling” the North, Kim said his country would focus on the “mass-producing of tactical nuclear weapons” and develop “another ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) system whose main mission is quick nuclear counterstrike”.

Military tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply in 2022 as the North conducted sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month, including firing its most advanced ICBM ever.

It capped the record-breaking year of launches by firing three short range ballistic missiles early on Saturday, and conducting another rare late-night launch at 2:50am (1750 GMT Saturday) on Sunday, Seoul’s military said.

The official KCNA reported on Sunday that the launches had been “a test-fire of the super-large multiple rocket launchers”.

In a separate KCNA report, Kim said the weapons put South Korea “as a whole within the range of strike and (were) capable of carrying (a) tactical nuclear warhead”.

North Korea was emphasising “the possibility of actual action”, said Yang Moo-jin, professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.

“North Korea is signalling a tactical shift of indirectly pressuring the United States by pressuring South Korea and escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula starting this year.” Seoul’s defence ministry called North Korea’s latest threats “provocative rhetoric that seriously damages the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula” and urged Pyongyang to immediately give up its nuclear programmes.

“We sternly warn that if North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, the Kim Jong Un regime will face an end,” the ministry added in a statement.

The launches come just days after Seo­ul scrambled fighter jets as five North Korean drones made an incursion into the South’s airspace on Monday.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, said that the North’s latest statement indicated “they are preparing for the possibility of actual war beyond the collapse of inter-Korean relations”.

He warned that if the United States and South Korea responded, as was likely, by further ramping up military drills, tensions between the two Koreas would reach “an unprecedented level” in 2023.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...
New terror wave
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

New terror wave

The time has come for decisive government action against militancy.
Development costs
27 Mar, 2024

Development costs

A HEFTY escalation of 30pc in the cost of ongoing federal development schemes is one of the many decisions where the...
Aitchison controversy
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

Aitchison controversy

It is hoped that higher authorities realise that politics and nepotism have no place in schools.