Pyongyang will rapidly accelerate the development of its nuclear arsenal, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said while overseeing a vast military parade showcasing his most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles, state media reported yesterday.
Despite biting sanctions, North Korea has doubled down on Kim’s military modernization drive, test-firing a slew of banned weapons this year while ignoring US offers of talks — as analysts warn of a likely resumption of nuclear tests.
Dressed in a white uniform trimmed with gold brocade, Kim watched as tanks, rocket launchers and his largest ballistic missiles were paraded through Pyongyang late on Monday for the founding anniversary of North Korea’s armed forces, state media reported.
Photo: Reuters
Kim vowed to “take measures for further developing the nuclear forces of our state at the fastest possible speed,” according to a transcript of his speech published by the Korean Central News Agency.
“The nuclear forces, the symbol of our national strength and the core of our military power, should be strengthened in terms of both quality and scale,” he said.
Repeated negotiations aimed at convincing Kim to give up his nuclear weapons programs have come to nothing, and on Monday he warned that he could use his arsenal if North Korea’s “fundamental interests” were threatened.
“The fundamental mission of our nuclear forces is to deter a war, but our nuclear weapons can never be confined to the single mission of war deterrent,” he said.
Kim’s messaging on the purpose of his nuclear weapons could be a response to the election victory of South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who takes office on May 10, analysts said.
“It’s noteworthy that Kim is now talking more specifically about the purpose of his nuclear weapons,” University of North Korean Studies professor Yang Moo-jin said. “South Korea’s president-elect Yoon has threatened a pre-emptive strike on Pyongyang if needed, and Kim seems to be indirectly saying that he may have to respond with nuclear tactics should Yoon indeed proceed.”
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
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STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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