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State media reported on Tuesday that Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, met with senior military officials to discuss the country's war preparations in light of his rivals' "frantic" military exercises and pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal in more "practical and offensive" ways.
As the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the US-South Korean joint military drills has intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat, the meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency of North Korea, the members of the commission discussed unspecified topics related to perfecting war preparations and enhancing defense capabilities in response to the threat posed by the allies' drills, which the North views as invasion rehearsals.
According to KCNA, Kim reviewed the nation's frontline attack plans and various combat documents and emphasized the necessity of increasing his nuclear deterrent "increasing speed on a more practical and offensive" manner.
The North's intended course of action was not mentioned in the report. Additionally, KCNA published photographs of Kim addressing officials while pointing to specific locations on a hazy map that appeared to depict South Korea.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim and the members of the military commission looked into the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, "in which the US imperialists and the (South Korean puppet traitors) are getting ever more undisguised in their moves for a war of aggression," and they talked about making plans for proposed military actions that their adversary would be unable to counter.
The US and South Korean militaries led their greatest field practices in years last month and independently held joint maritime and flying corps drills including a US plane carrying warship strike bunch and atomic proficient US planes.
The KCNA asserted that the exercises communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership and simulated an all-out war with North Korea.
The United States and South Korea have said that the expansion of their drills is necessary to deal with the North's evolving threats and that the exercises are defensive in nature.
Pressures are probably going to be delayed as the partners proceed with their drills and North Korea involves them as a guise to propel weapons improvement and escalate military preparation including its atomic competent rockets.
The report from North Korea came as South Korean officials said that for the fifth day in a row, the North did not answer calls from South Korea made through inter-Korean liaison and military hotlines.
According to South Korean officials, North Korea cut off communication after the South urged the North to stop using South Korean assets left at a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong without permission last week.
Because they are intended to prevent accidental clashes along the sea borders of the rivals, the paused military hotlines are especially concerning during a time of increased tension. According to Jeon Ha Gyu, a spokesperson for the defense ministry in South Korea, after the hotlines were halted on Tuesday, the South's military was not immediately detecting unusual activities by the North Korean military.
In a news conference, Seoul's point person on the North, South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Youngse, warned of unspecified legal action regarding North Korea's use of the Kaesong assets and expressed "strong regret" over the country's unilateral and irresponsible attitude regarding the communication lines.
Kwon said that when asked about Kim's remarks at the military meeting, it's likely that North Korea currently sees the rise in tension as favorable to its interests and that Seoul is carefully analyzing the North's intentions.
Following a North Korean nuclear test in 2016, South Korea pulled its businesses out of Kaesong, removing the last significant sign of rival cooperation. Recently, images published by the state media of North Korea showed what appeared to be commuter buses from South Korea operating on the streets of Kaesong and Pyongyang.
In 2023, North Korea has launched around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events. These missiles include intercontinental ballistic missiles with the potential to reach the US mainland and a number of shorter-range weapons designed to launch nuclear attacks on South Korean targets.
After launching nearly 70 missiles in 2022, the North was coming off a record year for weapons testing.
According to experts, Kim's provocative weapons displays are meant to negotiate economic concessions from a position of strength and persuade the United States to accept the North as a nuclear power.
Due to disagreements regarding the exchange of crippling US-led sanctions against the North and the North's steps to end its nuclear weapons program, nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019.
South Korean authorities say North Korea may soon raise the stakes by organizing more provocative showcases of its military may, including its most memorable atomic test explosion beginning around 2017.
Last month, North Korea unveiled what appeared to be a new nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a variety of delivery systems. At the same time, Kim demanded that his nuclear scientists produce more material of a weapons-grade to make bombs that can be attached to his expanding arsenal.
Additionally, North Korea has made veiled threats to test fire an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific. This would be seen as a major provocation given that its previous long-range tests were carried out at high angles to avoid neighboring territories.
Additionally, the North has stated that it wants to complete preparations for the April launch of a military spy satellite, which its rivals would almost certainly view as a test of ICBM technology that is prohibited by international sanctions.