North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his party to “accelerate” war preparations including its nuclear program, state media said Thursday. The comments came just a week after Kim warned Pyongyang would not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if “provoked” with nukes. Kim made the comments at the North’s ongoing year-end party meeting, where he is expected to unveil key policy decisions for 2024. Kim asked the party to “further accelerate the war preparations” across sectors, including nuclear weapons and civil defense, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. He also stressed that the “military situation” on the Korean peninsula had become “extreme” due to “unprecedented” anti-North confrontations with Washington.
Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington have ramped up defense cooperation in the face of a record-breaking series of weapons tests by Pyongyang this year 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 city of Busan, and Washington flew its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo. The United States and South Korea earlier this month held the second meeting of their Nuclear Consultative Group in Washington, where they discussed nuclear deterrence options in the event of conflict with the North.
At last year’s year-end party meeting, Kim called “for an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal.” The United Nations Security Council has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since it first conducted a nuclear test in 2006.
