SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will speed up steps toward becoming a military superpower with nuclear weapons and would not rule out using them if it came under enemy attack, state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday.
\nKim mentioned South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol by name for the second time in a week in denouncing Seoul for colluding with Washington to destabilize the region to gloss over the fact it does not even have proper strategic weapons.
\n\u201cYoon Suk Yeol made some tasteless and vulgar comment about the end of the Republic in his speech, and it shows he is totally consumed by his blind faith in his master\u2019s strength,\u201d KCNA quoted Kim as saying, referring to the South\u2019s alliance with the US
\n\u201cTo be honest, we have absolutely no intention of attacking South Korea,\u201d he said in the speech at the Kim Jong Un National Defense University, a training ground for elite military specialists.
\n\u201cEvery time I stated our position on the use of military force, I clearly and consistently used the qualification \u2018if.\u2019 If the enemies try to use force against our country, the Republic\u2019s military will use all offensive power without hesitation. This does not preclude the use of nuclear weapons.\u201d
\n\u201cOur footsteps toward becoming a military superpower and a nuclear power will accelerate,\u201d he added.
\nNorth Korea has for decades pursued a nuclear weapons program and is believed to have enough fissile materials to build dozens of the weapons. It has conducted six underground nuclear detonation tests.
\nLast week, South Korea marked an annual armed forces day with a large military parade showcasing a ballistic missile capable of carrying a massive warhead and featuring a flypast of a US strategic bomber.
\nIn his address that day, Yoon warned the North against using nuclear weapons. \u201cThat day will see the end of the North Korean regime.\u201d
\nNorth Korea may be building a new submarine, the South Korean defense ministry said citing intelligence indications in a report to a member of parliament. In January, Kim reportedly ordered a nuclear submarine to be built.
\nThe construction was at an early stage and it was not clear if the vessel was a nuclear-powered submarine, said the report.
\nNorth Korea is also working on a submarine drone that could be developed to carry nuclear weapons, possibly with the help of Russia, it said.
\nKCNA said Kim made his \u201cmilitary superpower\u201d remarks on Monday, the same day the North has said its Supreme People\u2019s Assembly would meet to discuss amending the country\u2019s constitution. The news agency has made no mention of the assembly\u2019s deliberations since Monday.
\nThe session is being closely watched because of the likelihood it would approve a constitutional amendment to reflect Kim\u2019s statement that unification is no longer possible and the South was a separate country and \u201ca principal enemy.\u201d
\nSuch a move would formalize Kim\u2019s break with decades-old goal espoused by both countries of national unification and attempts to improve ties, including a 2018 summit where their leaders declared there will be no more war and a new era of peace has opened.
\nIn a separate report, KCNA said Kim sent a birthday message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him his \u201cclosest Comrade and saying \u201cstrategic and cooperative relations\u201d between the two countries will be raised to a new level.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said \u201cthere was a high possibility\u201d North Korea could deploy troops to help Russia in the war with Ukraine.
\nKim also told a parliament hearing news reports of North Korean military officers having been killed in a Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied territory were likely true.
\nKim Jong Un and Putin in June adopted on a comprehensive strategic partnership that includes mutual defense pact.
\nThe two countries have denied accusations by US and South Korean officials the North was supplying arms to Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will speed up steps toward becoming a military superpower with nuclear weapons and would not rule out using them if it came under enemy attack, state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday. Kim mentioned South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol by name for the second …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71347,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71328\/revisions\/71347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}