Kim Jong Un Vows To Exponentially Boost Nuclear Arsenal In Response To US Escalation
While on Tuesday VP Harris, the State-run media and former president Trump were squaring off in a debate which only touched on bad foreign policy a couple of times, only briefly related to Ukraine and Gaza, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un issued statements vowing to exponentially boost the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Kim gave a speech marking the 76th founding anniversary of his government at the start of this week. He said that a nuclear overhaul is needed to defend the country from "hostile" forces and that North Korea faces a grave threat as a result of the reckless expansion the United States-led military bloc in the region.
North Korea will "redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat," he sated.
In particular Kim was reacting to a new US-South Korean defense agreement signed in July. The new agreement allows for the integration of US nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to defend the peninsula from the nuclear-armed north if need be.
Regional analysts have pointed out that these warnings of 'exponential' increases in nukes began in 2022. Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, has been cited in international reports as saying, "From the end of the following year, they started to mention 'exponential increases'," - he said in reference to the 8th Party Congress held in 2021.
"We believe that by 2027 North Korea can secure enough nuclear material for about 200 warheads and by 2030, this can reach 300," Yang added.
