North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is continuing to ramp up his focus on nuclear weapons and taking a more aggressive military stance towards his neighbour South Korea.
In his 2023 year-end speech, in which he outlined his plans for 2024, Kim said inter-Korean relations had become “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war”. For years Kim’s policy has been to attempt to reunify the two countries, which were separated in 1953 after the end of the Korean war. A tight military border has made it almost impossible for ordinary people to pass in or out of North Korea.
The North Korean leader also announced a plan to launch three new military spy satellites in 2024, highlighting the country’s continued focus on its space and military programmes.
