North Korea’s Kim Jong Un directed his military to accelerate nuclear weapons development, warning that U.S.-South Korean military drills could ignite war, according to state media, Newsweek reported.
Kim called the security environment “more serious day by day” and warned that annual U.S.-South Korean military drills include a “nuclear element” that could trigger conflict.
“The security environment around North Korea requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearization,” the Rodong Sinmun newspaper quoted Kim as saying. He accused Washington and Seoul of intensifying exercises and showing “their will to ignite a war.”
The Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war since 1953, when fighting stopped with an armistice but no peace treaty. The border between North and South Korea, the Demilitarized Zone, remains one of the most heavily fortified in the world.
North Korea has pursued nuclear weapons for decades, despite international sanctions and repeated diplomatic efforts to halt its program. The country carried out its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since conducted five more, the most recent in 2017, which it claimed was a successful test of a hydrogen bomb. Analysts say the tests, paired with advances in ballistic missile technology, have brought Pyongyang closer to fielding a credible nuclear weapon.
This year’s U.S.-South Korean drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, began Aug. 18 and are set to continue until Aug. 28. The allies describe the exercises as defensive, but Pyongyang regularly denounces them as preparations for an invasion. The maneuvers involve 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Koreans, in computer-simulated command post operations and field training. About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.
Kim’s latest remarks came during an inspection of the Choe Hyon, a 5,000-ton class destroyer first unveiled in April, at the western port city of Nampo. He said the “provocative and dangerous” nature of the U.S.-South Korean drills has intensified, citing what he described as a nuclear component.
“The U.S.-ROK intensified military nexus and the muscle-flexing are the most obvious manifestation of their will to ignite a war and the source of destroying the peace and security environment in the region,” Kim said, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name, the Republic of Korea.
Neighboring China, which has long been North Korea’s main political and economic supporter, reiterated its call for restraint. While Beijing supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it also opposes the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in the region.
“We hope that the relevant parties can see squarely the deep-rooted cause and crux of the peninsula issue and make joint efforts to uphold peace and stability in the peninsula and promote the political settlement of the issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
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