North Korea: North Korean Leader Mr. Kim Jong-un has vowed to increase the production of nuclear warheads and develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that is more potent while singling out South Korea as his nation’s “undoubted enemy.”
In a speech at a Workers’ party plenary meeting, Mr. Kim demanded an “Exponential increase” in the regime’s nuclear arsenal, signalling growing hostility against the US, South Korea, and Japan.
The leader’s statement was released just hours later following a ballistic missile launch toward its eastern waters that began in 2023 as it had ended the previous year when it conducted a record number of weapons tests.
It also launched three ballistic missiles days after sending five drones across the heavily armed border that has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce, but not a peace treaty.
Mr. Kim, who recently used year-end party meetings to lay out important policies, charged Washington and Seoul of carrying an “Unparalleled in human history”, “Plot to isolate and stifle” Pyongyang. North Korean leader noted that South Korea had become “our undoubted enemy”, describing it as “hell-bent on an imprudent and dangerous arms buildup”.