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.
