The Korean peninsula has never been more at risk of nuclear war, according to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has accused the US of escalating tension and provocations, according to state media KCNA on Friday. The remarks were made in the midst of claims that North Korea dispatched over 10,000 troops to Russia to aid in its invasion of Ukraine and worldwide censure of Pyongyang and Moscow’s growing military cooperation.
According to the KCNA news agency, Kim stated during a speech at a military display in the capital city of Pyongyang that prior discussions with Washington had only brought attention to its “aggressive and hostile” stance toward North Korea. “Never before have the warring parties on the Korean peninsula faced such a dangerous and acute confrontation that it could escalate into the most destructive thermonuclear war,” he stated on Thursday.
“We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States,” he said, adding that the talks had only shown its aggressive and hostile policy toward North Korea could never change.
The re-election of Donald Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term—in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the Korean border in 2018 and 2019—has not yet been openly discussed by North Korean state media.However, because of the discrepancy between Kim’s requests for sanctions relief and the United States’ proposals for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal, their diplomacy produced no tangible results.
Trump has often bragged about his relationship with Kim, claiming that last month the two nations would have faced “a nuclear war with millions of people killed,” but that he was able to avert it because of his relationship with the leader of the North.
Kim might be attempting to highlight the North’s nuclear capabilities before Trump’s second term, according to Hong Min, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, while still allowing for talks.”He might be suggesting Trump should show his ‘willingness to co-exist’ before re-opening any talks and calling for a change in the U.S. hostile attitude,” Hong stated.
According to KCNA, Kim also urged the creation and modernization of “ultra-modern” weaponry and pledged to continue improving defense capabilities in order to strengthen the North’s strategic position. The show, known as the Defence Development Exhibition, featured both tactical and strategic armaments on display. The Chollima-1 rocket, which was used in a successful satellite launch in November 2023, the Hwasong-19 and 18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the Saetbyol-9 multipurpose attack drone, which is similar to the U.S. Reaper, were all visible in KCNA photos.
According to Hong, the images also featured a number of weapons that Russia either required or is believed to have already provided for its conflict in Ukraine, including drones, self-propelled howitzers, anti-tank systems, and 240mm multiple rocket launchers. Following a briefing by the national intelligence agency, lawmakers in the South announced Thursday that North Korea had transferred more weapons to Russia. When he was the defense minister last year, Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, went with Kim to a defense fair that included weapons and missiles.Kim called the Korean peninsula “the world’s biggest hotspot” and pushed the North’s military to strengthen its warfighting capabilities last week, accusing the US and its allies of inflaming tensions to “the worst phase in history.”
