North Korea’s leader visited a nuclear-material production base and Nuclear Weapons Institute and warned that “confrontation with the most vicious hostile countries is inevitable,” and his country must bolster its nuclear forces, the North’s state media reported on Wednesday.
Kim Jong Un’s warning came days after U.S. President Donald Trump signalled he might be willing to resume the engagement he embarked on with North Korea during his first term in office.
North Korea has reported Trump’s return to power but has not said anything about his comments or speculation that contacts between the two rivals might resume.
Instead, Kim stressed the dangers North Korea faced, the Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported.
“The DPRK’s security situation, the world’s most unstable situation in which a long-term confrontation with the most vicious hostile countries is inevitable, makes it indispensable for the country to steadily strengthen the nuclear shield,” KCNA, reported Kim as saying, referring to the country by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The news agency did not identify the “hostile countries” but North Korea regards the United States and its ally, South Korea, as its main enemies.
KCNA also did not identify the nuclear-material production base that Kim visited or say when he was there.
In September, state media reported that Kim made a similar visit as North Korea unveiled for the first time details of its uranium enrichment facility, where he called for increasing the number of centrifuges for enrichment so it could increase its nuclear arsenal.
KCNA has not revealed the location of the facility but South Korea and the United States believe North Korea operates uranium enrichment facilities at the Kangson nuclear complex near the capital Pyongyang and at the Yongbyon nuclear site.
Kim was also reported to have visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute in September.
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North Korea has tested nuclear devices six times since 2006 and has developed missiles believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
During his first term, Trump embarked on an unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful bid to engage with North Korea to try to get it to abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump has recently suggested he would be open to a new effort but North Korea has reiterated that it had no intention of giving up its nuclear program, blaming the United States for creating tensions.
While the United States and its allies call for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, North Korea says it needs its nuclear weapons to defend itself.
Edited by Mike Firn