Seoul, Jan 29 (EFE).- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for strengthening his country’s nuclear shield and reinforcing its nuclear forces, state media reported Wednesday, days after US President Donald Trump said he intends to try to restart talks.
Kim made this call during an inspection of a nuclear material production base and the national Nuclear Weapons Institute in the company of Hong Sung-mu, one of the main figures in the North Korean nuclear program, according to KCNA, which did not specify the date of the visit.
During the visit, the marshal congratulated those involved in the country’s atomic weapons production “for achieving remarkable successes in the new long-term projects.”
The North Korean leader also highlighted the “amazing production results” achieved in 2024 and was informed about the details of current production and plans for 2025 and beyond.
Calling 2025 a “crucial year,” Kim urged those involved in the national nuclear program to bolster “the nuclear forces.”
“He underlined the need to further raise the present surging spirit and thus to achieve epochal successes in overfulfilling the plan for producing weapons-grade nuclear materials and in strengthening the nuclear shield of the country,” KCNA added.
Kim said that North Korea faces a “grave” situation due to the threat of hostile external forces and noted that the power to take control of a potential adverse scenario “is not provided by any declaration or slogan, but the stockpiling of the physical strength of practical use and its increase by geometrical progression.”
The security situation facing Pyongyang, “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,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
The news agency did not specify the location of the base, but the published photographs suggest that it could be the same facilities that Kim visited in September last year to publicize his uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Kim’s call to strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities comes just days after President Trump expressed his desire for a rapprochement with the leader following the failed attempt during his previous term in office from 2017-2021.
Kim’s comments raise questions about what his response to such an offer might be. EFE
asb-mra/tw
