North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued new threats of nuclear strikes against Seoul and ordered the acceleration of military preparations for a “war” that could “be unleashed at any time” on the peninsula, it was reported Sunday. state agency KCNA. The leader attacked the United States in a long speech, at the end of a five-day meeting of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, an end-of-year high mass which sets the country’s strategic directions.
During the meeting, the ruling party announced the launch of three new spy satellites in 2024, the construction of drones and the development of electronic warfare capabilities, according to KCNA. After two successive failures in May and June, North Korea successfully put its first military observation satellite into orbit in November.
Help from Russia
South Korean intelligence services believe that Pyongyang received decisive technological assistance from Russia, where Kim Jong Un visited in September and met with President Vladimir Putin, to successfully put this satellite, the “Malligyong”, into orbit. -1″. North Korea carried out a record number of ballistic missile tests in 2023, in violation of numerous UN resolutions prohibiting it. It engraved its status as a nuclear power in its Constitution, and successfully tested the Hwasong-18, the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its arsenal, capable of reaching the United States.
Kim Jong Un in his speech accused Washington of “various types of military threats” and ordered his armed forces to maintain “an overwhelming war response capability”, according to KCNA. It is “a fait accompli that war can break out at any time on the Korean Peninsula due to the enemies’ reckless moves to invade us,” the leader said.
In an effort to deter, the US armed forces have sent the nuclear-powered submarine USS Missouri, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and a B-52 strategic bomber to South Korea in recent months, each time provoking anger. of North Korea.
North Korea had previously described Washington’s deployment of strategic weapons as an “intentional provocation of nuclear war.” “We must respond quickly to a possible nuclear crisis and continue to accelerate preparations to pacify the entire territory of South Korea by mobilizing all physical means and forces, including nuclear force, in an emergency,” Kim Jong Un said.
“Persistent and uncontrollable crisis”
Pyongyang sees the military maneuvers on its doorstep as a rehearsal for a future invasion of its territory, and has long viewed its missile tests as necessary “countermeasures.”
At the party meeting, the leader said he no longer seeks reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, pointing to the “persistent and uncontrollable crisis situation” that he said was triggered by Seoul and Washington.
The two Koreas began a process of rapprochement in 2018, characterized by three meetings between Kim Jong Un and the South Korean president at the time, Moon Jae-in. But relations between the two Koreas deteriorated to a low point this year, after Pyongyang’s launch of a spy satellite prompted Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military deal aimed at defusing tensions.
“I think it is a mistake that we should no longer make to consider those who declare us the ‘main enemy’ (…) as a partner for reconciliation and unification,” Kim Jong Un said, quoted by KCNA . He therefore ordered a reshuffle of the administrations managing relations with the South in order to “fundamentally change direction”.
Leif Easley, a professor of international relations at Ewha University in Seoul, said Pyongyang’s emphasis on its “significant military capabilities” is likely to hide the country’s economic woes this year. “Pyongyang’s bellicose rhetoric suggests that its military actions are not only aimed at deterrence but also at domestic politics and international coercion,” he said.