North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed North Korea would mass-produce nuclear warheads and missiles in a defiant New Year’s message, suggesting that he would continue to accelerate a rogue weapons program that has stoked international tensions.
Kim, who yesterday said that he has always had a nuclear launch button on his desk, has presided over multiple missile tests in recent months and the North’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test — which it said was a hydrogen bomb — in September last year.
“We must mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles, and speed up their deployment,” Kim said in his annual address to the nation.
Photo: Reuters
He reiterated his claim that North Korea has achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state, but insisted its expansion of the weapons program was a defensive measure.
“We should always keep readiness to take immediate nuclear counterattacks against the enemy’s scheme for a nuclear war,” he said.
Pyongyang last year dramatically ramped up its efforts to become a nuclear power, despite a raft of international sanctions and increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the US.
The North claims it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself from a hostile Washington.
US President Donald Trump has responded to each test with his own amplified declarations, threatening to “totally destroy” Pyongyang and taunting Kim, saying the North Korean leader is on “a suicide mission.”
However, far from persuading Kim to give up his nuclear drive, analysts have said Trump’s tough talk might have prompted the North Korean leader to push through with his dangerous quest.
North Korea “can cope with any kind of nuclear threats from the US and has a strong nuclear deterrence that is able to prevent the US from playing with fire,” Kim said. “The nuclear button is always on my table. The US must realize this is not blackmail, but reality.”
Kim’s comments come after a former top US military officer said that the Trump presidency had helped create “an incredibly dangerous climate.”
“We’re actually closer, in my view, to a nuclear war with North Korea and in that region than we have ever been,” said Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, in an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
Pyongyang sees US military activities in the region — such as the joint drills it holds with South Korea — as a precursor to invasion.
It has rattled the international community by testing increasingly longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles throughout last year.
Critics have said Pyongyang wants to forcibly reunify the Korean Peninsula — divided by the Demilitarized Zone since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
However, Kim yesterday also sweetened his speech with a conciliatory tone toward Seoul, indicating for the first time that the North is considering taking part in the South’s Winter Olympics next month.
The Olympics “will serve as a good chance to display our Korean people’s grace toward the world and we sincerely hope the Games will be a success,” Kim said, urging the South to cease its “nuclear war exercise” with the US.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese