Kim Jong-un told a Communist Party meeting in Pyongyang that the country needed a new intercontinental ballistic missile system to launch a rapid “nuclear counter strike”. Photo / AP
Kim Jong-un told a Communist Party meeting in Pyongyang that the country needed a new intercontinental ballistic missile system to launch a rapid “nuclear counter strike”. Photo / AP
Kim Jong-un has called for an “exponential” increase in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal after his military marked New Year’s Day with a rare ballistic missile test, triggering fears he may be preparing for war.
Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, told defence chiefs to “retaliate” against further provocations after the short-range missile crashed into the sea in the early hours of Sunday.
Kim told a Communist Party meeting in Pyongyang that the country needed a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system to launch a rapid “nuclear counter strike” because Washington and Seoul were set on “isolating and stifling” the North.
”The situation calls for redoubled efforts to beef up the military muscle in response to the worrying military moves by the US and other hostile forces,” said Kim.
South Korea has become “our undoubted enemy” being “hell-bent on imprudent and dangerous arms buildup”, Kim said, according to the state-run KCNA agency.
South Korea has become “our undoubted enemy” being “hell-bent on imprudent and dangerous arms buildup”, Kim Jong-un said, according to the state-run KCNA agency. Photo / AP
”It highlights the importance and necessity of mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons and calls for an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal,” he went on, adding these would be a “main orientation” of the 2023 nuclear and defence strategy.
The North fired three short-range ballistic missiles early on Saturday, followed by another in the early hours of New Year’s Day, South Korea said.
The last missile flew about 400km after being fired around 2.50am local time from the Ryongsong area of the capital Pyongyang, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Japan said the missile reached an altitude of 100km.
Yasukazu Hamada, the Japanese defence minister, said Tokyo had protested to North Korea via diplomatic channels in Beijing.
KCNA said the launches had been “a test-fire of the super-large multiple rocket launchers”.
Yoon’s office said that the prime minister had told South Korea’s top generals that “our military must resolutely retaliate against any provocation by the enemy with the determination to fight”.
The North conducted weapons tests banned by the United Nations in nearly every month of 2022, including firing its most advanced ICBM ever.
South Korea's Yoon Suk-yeol told defence chiefs to “retaliate” against further provocations after a short-range missile crashed into the sea on Sunday. Photo / AP
Last week South Korea scrambled fighter jets after five North Korean drones crossed into Southern airspace.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, said that the North’s latest statement indicated “they are preparing for the possibility of actual war”.
He warned that if the US and South Korea responded, as was likely, by further ramping up military drills, tensions would reach “an unprecedented level” in 2023.
”The Korean peninsula could become a second Ukraine if the situation is mismanaged,” he added.
