North calls for 'practical, offensive' upgrades to nukes

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for more “practical and offensive” upgrades to Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal to overwhelm the defenses of the regime's enemies during a meeting with senior military officials, state media said Tuesday.

In this photo released on Tuesday by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un points at a blurred-out map of South Korea during a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission that took place the previous day. [NEWS1]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for more “practical and offensive” upgrades to Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal to overwhelm the defenses of the regime's enemies during a meeting with senior military officials held in response to South Korean-U.S. military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

According to an English-language report by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim made the comments at a Monday meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission.

Kim urged an accelerated expansion of the North’s deterrence capabilities in “more practical and offensive” ways to “effectively apply it as a measure for more strict control and management” of what he called the “ever-worsening security” situation on the Korean Peninsula, the KCNA said.

Officials at the meeting “discussed practical matters and measures for machinery to prepare various military action proposals” that ensures “no means and ways of counteraction are available to the enemy,” the report said.

Photos of the meeting released by the KCNA showed Kim pointing at a blurred-out map of South Korea, with his finger directed at the area of a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi.

Monday’s meeting of the Workers’ Party Central Military Commission took place amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korean weapons launches and the joint South Korean-U.S. military drills in recent weeks.

The allies last month conducted a series of large-scale military exercises, including the Freedom Shield command post exercise and the concurrent Warrior Shield field exercise, followed by the Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise.

The exercises have been criticized by the Pyongyang’s state media as rehearsals for a potential invasion of the North.

Prior to and during the allied exercises, the North fired a series of missiles into the East Sea, including a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on March 16, a short-range ballistic missile on March 19 and multiple long-range cruise missiles on March 23 that it said were capable of being mounted with nuclear warheads.

The North has also not responded to South Korean attempts to establish communication via the inter-Korean liaison line and the military hotline since Friday.

Even as it stonewalled South Korean calls via inter-Korean communication channels, the North’s state media said Saturday that the regime tested an “underwater nuclear attack drone,” called Haeil-2, that traveled undersea for 71 hours and six minutes between Tuesday and Friday last week before accurately hitting its target and detonating a “test warhead.”

At a Tuesday press briefing, South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Young-se blamed the North for “unilaterally” suspending communication, warning that the regime's sudden silence would only deepen its international isolation.

In his statement, Kwon expressed “strong regret” for the North’s “irresponsible” suspension of communication with the South.

“I strongly warn North Korea that this [behavior] will only isolate itself and deepen the difficult situation it finds itself in,” the unification minister said.

Kwon also warned the North that its “unlawful” use of South Korean companies’ machinery and equipment at the Kaesong Industrial Complex was a violation of prior inter-Korean agreements guaranteeing the security of South Korean investments in the North, as well as the North’s own law governing the use of the site.

North Korean state media have released photos and broadcast video footage of South Korean commuter buses operating in Pyongyang and Kaesong after the withdrawal of South Korean operators and the shutdown of the complex in 2016.

The minister said the South Korean government “will undertake all possible measures to demand accountability for the North’s actions,” including through cooperation with the international community.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]