Pyongyang is under multiple sets of sanctions over its nuclear programme, and the two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, AFP reported.
“In his concluding speech, Kim reaffirmed the steadfast policy position of our party and state to further accelerate the strengthening of the country’s defense capabilities,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted him as saying in a dispatch.
The speech was delivered as Kim presided over a three-day party plenary meeting that wrapped up on Monday, during which senior officials reviewed policy initiatives, KCNA said.
It went on to quote Kim as saying “the United States and South Korea have increasingly stepped up and publicized their efforts to expand and modernize military capabilities in the region, even pursuing the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines by South Korea”.
In the face of such developments, it was the “unwavering position” of the North to accelerate efforts to “expand and strengthen a powerful and absolutely reliable self-defensive deterrent”, Kim said.
On the nuclear arsenal, KCNA said the plenary meeting “unanimously agreed” that the “country’s nuclear forces… and fully exercising its status as a nuclear weapons state constitute the most accurate and only way” to respond to geopolitical challenges.
Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.
Kim’s powerful sister, Yo Jong, said earlier this month that the North’s nuclear policy was a “line of no retreat”, reiterating the regime’s position that it has no intention of giving up its nuclear arsenal.