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North Korea Vows to Escalate Nuclear Threat Against the South


SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to expand his country’s nuclear capabilities against rival South Korea “exponentially,” hinting that he will escalate military war. in the new year despite sanctions from abroad and economic difficulties. at home.

During a five-day meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that ended in Pyongyang on Saturday, Kim called for mass production of short-range nuclear missiles that could be used against South Korea, as well as build a new intercontinental ballistic missile. aimed at the United States, North Korea’s official Central News Agency said on Sunday.

Mr. Kim took very little time to express his intentions. North Korea kicked off the new year by firing a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday, after launching three similar missiles on New Year’s Eve. Kim said the missiles are capable of delivering nuclear warheads anywhere in South Korea, which he says has become North Korea’s “unquestionable enemy” under its new conservative president. this country, Yoon Suk Yeol.

During the party meeting, Kim said Yoon’s government forced North Korea to shift to “mass production of tactical nuclear weapons” and “exponentially increase its nuclear arsenal” as a “key direction” of its nuclear policy for 2023.

Since Mr. Yoon took office in May, South Korea has taken a tougher line with North Korea, calling North Korea its “main enemy.” When North Korea send drones Across the border last week, Yoon vowed to “retaliate” and called for “preparation for war,” ordering the South Korean military to send its drones into the air. Korean section. His attitude was different from his predecessor, Moon Jae Inwho has made reducing tensions and “preventing war” on the Korean Peninsula a hallmark of his foreign policy.

Kim said Saturday that North Korea will “respond with nuclear for nuclear, and all-out confrontation for all-out confrontation, to deal with the enemy’s rash and reckless actions.” .

South Korea’s defense ministry warned on Sunday that the Kim regime “will meet its end” if it tries to use nuclear weapons. “They must realize that the only way to improve people’s lives is through denuclearization,” the ministry said in a statement.

Kim’s threats come from a difficult time for the North Korean economy, which already devastated by the pandemic and years of international sanctions. Mr. Kim has alert about food shortages following widespread flooding that has slashed agricultural output over the past few years. The market value of the North Korean currency against the US dollar nearly halved last year, while rice and fuel prices surged, according to Seoul-based news agencies that screen North Korean economy.

Kim appears to see his nuclear arsenal as the best tool he has to enhance his leadership credibility among his own people, analysts say, repeatedly warning them that North Korea must face threats from the United States and its allies. By expanding his arsenal, Kim also hopes to convince Washington and its allies that since sanctions have failed to stop his nuclear weapons ambitions, they should return to the negotiating table. with concessions, they said.

“Kim Jong-un has little to show for his people on the economic front,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “So he highlighted his achievements on the military front during the party meeting.”

North Korea show more rockets in 2022 than in any previous year. However, Kim’s threat to increase nuclear arsenal in the new year not unexpected, Lee Byong-chul, a North Korea expert at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said there was a possibility of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, as Mr. Yoon would not be afraid to confront North Korea.

“It is politically beneficial for Yoon to be tough on the North because it can help his party solidify conservative votes ahead of the parliamentary elections” in early 2014, Mr. Lee said.

Mr. Kim became more determined to expand his nuclear arsenal after his negotiations with then-President Trump failed to lift sanctions. That determination increased even more after Mr. Yoon take office in Korea last year.

Kim’s failed diplomacy with Trump convinced him that “no matter what party is in power in Washington, the United States has no intention of bargaining with North Korea” and that “guaranteeing a strong nuclear force is It’s the only way for North Korea to deal with its own pressure and threats,” Chung Sung-Yoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said in a statement. a piece of paper last month.

After Kim’s talks with Trump collapsed in 2019, North Korean diplomats advocating dialogue with Washington have aside and was replaced by hardliners in favor of a “power for power” confrontation, analysts said.

Last year, North Korea ended its self-imposed ban on ICBM tests, debut Hwasong-17, the country’s newest and most powerful ICBM, in November. During a party meeting last week, Kim ordered his government to “develop another ICBM system whose main task is to counter rapid nuclear work,” North Korea said. Last month, county conduct ground test of a new rocket engine that outside analysts say will be used to develop a new generation of solid fuel ICBMs that will launch faster than current liquid fuel ICBMs.

North Korea first conducted ICBM tests in 2017. But after Kim’s talks with Trump failed, North Korea escalated pressure on South Korea, testing a series of missiles. short range ballistic missile which it says can deliver nuclear warheads to South Korean targets. In recent months, it has also raised tensions by sending a squadron of fighter jets, as well as artillery and missile firing, near the inter-Korean land and sea borders.

“In the past, North Korea tended to focus on putting pressure on the United States, ignoring Seoul and favoring direct dialogue with Washington,” said Yang, an analyst at the University of North Korean Studies. “But this time, Kim Jong-un seems to be focused on pressuring South Korea and increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula as an indirect way to force Washington to take action.”

​For months, the United States and South Korea have warned that North Korea could conduct its seventh nuclear test at any time.

There is little sign of de-escalation, with the United States and its allies pledging to intensify military exercises around South Korea to deter North Korea.

Preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration showed little eagerness to begin a new round of negotiations with the North. So does Mr. Yoon’s government in Seoul.

Many days later northern exam of a new solid-fuel rocket engine last month, South Korea tested its own solid-fuel rocket engine. Washington’s rising tensions with Beijing and Moscow have allow extra room for Kim to test more weapons with impunity.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said: “With Kim refusing diplomacy and threatening to produce mass nuclear weapons, the Yoon administration is likely to step up. further South Korea’s defense capabilities and readiness.” . “If China doesn’t want the regional instability of an inter-Korean arms race on its doorstep, it will have to do more to contain Pyongyang by 2023.”

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