On the official founding day of the North Korean Navy, ruler Kim Jong Un accused the United States and its allies of wanting to undertake joint naval exercises in the waters near his country “more feverishly” than before. The autocratic ruler was quoted as saying by the state media on Tuesday that units of the people’s army would be equipped with new weapons “in line with the policy of expanding the use of tactical nuclear weapons”. Kim therefore visited the naval command on the founding day on Monday.
“The waters around the Korean Peninsula have become the site of the world’s largest concentration of war hardware, the most unstable waters at risk of nuclear war,” Kim said. The navy must become “part of the state nuclear deterrent”.
Referring to their meeting earlier this month at the US Camp David, Kim referred to the leaders of the three countries as “gang bosses”. US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had agreed, among other things, to exchange missile information in real time with regard to North Korea. There should also be annual joint military exercises in several areas. The three countries see North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs as a direct threat.
Kim has repeatedly called for the expansion of his country’s nuclear power. Pyongyang’s goal is to have the full spectrum of nuclear weapons and missiles. Tactical nuclear weapons are considered to be those whose radius of action and explosive power are lower than strategic nuclear weapons such as ICBMs.
