Baghdad-INA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his ruling party to “accelerate” war preparations, including the country’s nuclear program, state media reported Thursday.
These instructions come a week after Kim issued a warning that Pyongyang was ready to use its nuclear arsenal if it was “provoked” with a nuclear weapon.
Kim made these statements during the annual meeting held by the ruling Workers’ Party at the end of each year, which is expected to issue decisions setting major policies for 2024.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang reported that Kim asked his party to “further accelerate the pace of war preparations” in various fields, including the nuclear program and civil defense.
He also stressed that the “military situation” on the Korean Peninsula has become “acute” due to confrontations with Washington’s “unprecedented” anti-North actions.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have strengthened their defense cooperation in the face of a series of record military tests conducted by Pyongyang this year, and they also recently activated a data-sharing system on North Korean missile launches.
Earlier this month, an American nuclear-powered submarine arrived on the coast of the city of Busan in South Korea, and Washington carried out maneuvers with its long-range bombers with the participation of Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea considered Washington’s deployment of strategic weapons such as B-52 bombers on the Korean Peninsula as “deliberate provocative moves toward nuclear war.”
2023-12-29 04:14:23