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According to state media on Tuesday, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un demanded that his nation increase production of “weapon-grade nuclear materials” and develop more potent weapons.
Ahead of the arrival of a US Navy carrier strike group in South Korea on Tuesday, Kim’s most recent threat doubled down on an earlier pledge to increase nuclear output “exponentially.”
According to the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim was briefed by representatives from the nation’s nuclear weapons school and advised North Korea to be ready to use its nuclear weapons “anytime and anywhere.”
He requested that authorities “expand on a far-sighted way the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials for fully implementing the plan… on increasing nuclear arsenals exponentially.”
In addition, Kim “put spurs to continuing to produce powerful nuclear weapons,” the KCNA reported.
According to the story, Kim stated that once North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems are “perfectly” ready, “the enemy would fear us and not dare provoke our state sovereignty, system, and people.”
North Korea proclaimed itself to be a “irreversible” nuclear power last year, and Kim recently called for a “exponential” rise in the production of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons.
The nation also wants to diversify the ways in which its nuclear weapons are delivered, and on Tuesday it claimed to have tested a drone that could launch an underwater nuclear strike successfully for a second time.
In what Pyongyang claimed was a response to recent US-South Korea military exercises, the largest in size in five years, the new weapon known as Haeil, which in Korean means “tsunami,” underwent its first test last week.
Before detonating a target off the coast of North Hamgyong province early on Monday, the new weapon tracked a simulated path for “41 hours and 27 minutes” underwater, according to a separate report from KCNA.
The test “proved all strategic qualification[s] as well as safety and reliability in the weapons system,” according to the KCNA report.
Similar weapons, including the nuclear-capable Poseidon torpedo, have allegedly also been developed by Russia, but experts say North Korea may still not be able to master the intricate technology needed for such weapons.
Additionally, according to a separate claim from KCNA, the North Korean military practised firing tactical ballistic missiles in order to simulate a nuclear attack.
