Kim Jong Un calls for exponential increase in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal amid threats from South, US

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is calling for an “exponential increase” in his country’s nuclear weapons arsenal in response to what he claims are threats from South Korea and the United States, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.

Kim’s comments come as North Korea twice over the weekend tested what it claimed was a large, nuclear-capable, multiple-launch rocket system that could put all of South Korea in its range, according to a report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Speaking on New Year’s Eve on the final day of a six-day plenary session that reviewed 2022, Kim said South Korea has become an “undoubted enemy” and its main ally, the US, has increased pressure on the North to the “maximum” level over the past year by frequently deploying its military assets to the Korean Peninsula.

In response, Kim said in the coming year that Pyonyang must mass produce tactical nuclear weapons while developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that would give the North a “quick counterstrike capability,” according to the KCNA report.

Kim’s comments come at the end of a year that saw his regime test more missiles than at any time in North Korean history, including an ICBM that could in theory strike the US mainland.

On Saturday, in its 37th day of missile tests in 2022, North Korea fired at least three short-range ballistic missiles from a site south of Pyongyang, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.