In National Day speech, Kim urges nuclear progress to counter ‘grave threat’

Seoul, Sep 10 (EFE).- In a National Day speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged for the country to improve its nuclear capabilities to face the «grave threat» posed by the current regional security environment, state media reported Tuesday.

In his speech delivered on Monday in Pyongyang to prominent members of the sole party and the government, he asserted that the allies «led by the United States,» and based on its nuclear weapons, poses a «grave threat» to the country.

“The obvious conclusion is that the nuclear force of [North Korea] and the posture capable of properly using it for ensuring the state’s right to security in any time should be more thoroughly perfected,” he said, according to the transcript published by KCNA.

Kim said his country is «increasing the number of nuclear weapons by geometrical progression» and that it will «steadily strengthen its nuclear force.»

“Our state is a responsible nuclear weapons state. We are constantly exposed to a serious nuclear threat. Our nuclear weapons for defending ourselves do not pose a threat to anyone,” he added.

In other matters, the marshal assured that North Korea has taken «irreversible measures» to prevent future floods such as those that affected the northwest of the country this summer.

The floods have led to significant efforts by the regime – which has temporarily moved thousands of residents of the northwest region to Pyongyang – to rehabilitate the area, including the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of young “volunteers” to assist in the reconstruction of the affected areas.

Kim also expressed satisfaction with respect to economic activity in the first half of the year and assured that good harvests are expected.

South Korea’s central bank estimates that the North’s economy grew by 3.1 percent in 2023, ending a three-year cycle of contraction, thanks to the improvement of the manufacturing sector and the recovery of cross-border trade with China and Russia, with which it has greatly strengthened ties in the last year.

Despite the apparent economic improvement, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed last week the persistent concerns of food security in the impoverished Asian country, in addition to denouncing other systematic violations of human rights by the regime. EFE

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