North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has advocated increasing military production for military purposes and manufacturing more powerful weapons, state media announced.
Kim’s appeal coincides with the arrival of a US aircraft carrier in South Korea on Tuesday (28).
In a meeting with members of the Institute of Nuclear Weapons, the North Korean dictator said that the country must prepare to use its missiles “at any time and in any place”, reported the state news agency KCNA.
Kim called for “proactively expanding the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials with the aim of implementing the plan to … exponentially increase nuclear arsenals.”
It also “encouraged continued production of potent nuclear weapons,” the agency added.
Photographs released by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper show Kim, surrounded by soldiers, inspecting a row of suspected nuclear warheads identified as “Hwasan-31”, which means volcano in Korean.
Such green-colored warheads can be mounted on different types of missiles, according to the tables and diagrams noted on the walls.
– Seventh nuclear test? –
North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year and Kim recently defended the “exponential increase in the production of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons.
The state press on Tuesday released a series of reports on the nuclear issue, an indication that the country is preparing the seventh nuclear test in its history, according to analysts.
“North Korea has unveiled a significantly reduced tactical nuclear warhead and many question whether it can actually explode,” said Cheong Song-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.
“It increases the possibility that North Korea will carry out its seventh nuclear test with these tactical nuclear warheads,” he added to AFP.
Pyongyang has announced a series of missile tests in response to US and South Korean military exercises, which is a heavy burden on the impoverished country.
“North Korea has warned of an overwhelming response to any joint military exercise, but given the number of missiles launched, it cannot continue like this indefinitely,” Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, told AFP.
“In this case, the seventh nuclear test will mark a kind of end, they must declare themselves a nuclear power and they will return to negotiations with the United States”, he foresees.
When North Korea has “impeccably” prepared its weapons systems, “the enemy will fear us and will not dare to challenge our sovereignty, our system and our people,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
The isolated communist country is also trying to diversify its nuclear weapons delivery systems and announced on Tuesday it had carried out a second test of what it calls an “undersea nuclear attack drone”.
The first test of this new weapon, an unmanned submarine called Haeil (tsunami in Korean), whose capacity raises doubts among analysts, took place last week in response to major military maneuvers organized by South Korea and the United States.
Pyongyang announced that the Haeil had maneuvered underwater for more than 41 hours after a simulated 600-kilometer itinerary.
The North Korean military also carried out test firings on Monday to simulate a nuclear strike, using tactical ballistic missiles, KCNA said.
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© Agence France-Presse