NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong Un said his country must quickly expand its
nuclear arsenal as he warned that annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises
included a "nuclear element" which he said could spark war, North
Korean state media reported.
Why It Matters
The Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war
since 1953, divided by the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea and South Korea,
when fighting ended.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006. It
condemns military exercises between U.S. forces and their South Korea allies as
preparations for an invasion.
What To Know
Kim said the "security environment" around North Korea
is "getting more serious day by day" and "requires us to make a
radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid
expansion of nuclearization," the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper
reported, paraphrasing his remarks.
The U.S.-South Korean military exercises "have always been
provocative and dangerous in their nature but the gravity is increasing from
the characteristics that they are recently plotting military nexus with the
nuclear element involved," Kim said, said the Rodong newspaper.
"The U.S.-ROK intensified military nexus and the
muscle-flexing are the most obvious manifestation of their will to ignite a war
and the source of destroying the peace and security environment in the
region," he said, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official
name, the Republic of Korea.
President Donald Trump held three meetings with Kim during the
U.S. president's first term though no breakthrough was achieved. Trump raised
the prospect, during his election campaign last year, of reviving his effort to
press North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea's neighbor and ally China also calls for the
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It does not want to see North Korea
wielding nuclear weapons but nor does it want to see U.S. nuclear weapons in
the region.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, asked about Kim's intent
to build up his nuclear arsenal, said "China's fundamental position on the
situation on the Korea peninsula issue has not changed."
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