North Korea Says Nuclear Arsenal Will Grow Much Larger

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced on Sunday that he intends to greatly expand his country’s nuclear arsenal this year and will build new intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The currently established situation calls for our country doubling down our efforts to strengthen our military power overwhelmingly to safeguard our sovereignty, safety and basic national interest to cope with the dangerous military moves by the [United States] and other hostile forces that target us.
—Kim Jong-un

• Kim called South Korea its “undoubted enemy,” alongside the U.S.
• He said his nation’s super-large multiple rocket launcher system has “South Korea as a whole within the range of strike and is capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads.”
• At the beginning of last year, North Korea had only 40 to 50 viable nuclear warheads, compared to America’s 5,550 and Russia’s 6,257. Kim seeks to change this within the coming year.

South Korea’s response: In response, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol stated that South Korea and the U.S. would discuss possible joint exercises using American nuclear weapons.

• When a reporter asked U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday to confirm the joint exercises, he denied them.
• On Tuesday, administration officials from both nations explained that they would hold table-top drills and coordinate defense operations, but would not conduct nuclear exercises.

In order to respond to the North Korean nuclear weapons, the two countries are discussing ways to share information on the operation of U.S.-owned nuclear assets, and joint planning and execution of them accordingly.
—Kim Eun-hye, South Korean press secretary

The Trumpet said: North Korea’s increasing aggression and nuclear threats should concern America. But the greatest danger coming from North Korea is the true source of its confidence and nuclear power. In 2017, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained that North Korea “is a massive distraction from the real threat posed by China and Russia. These powerful Asian nations are the only reason North Korea is able to operate so freely.”

Learn more: Read “North Korea—Truly an Isolated State?”