North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a nuclear deterrent force and warned that he would not hesitate to “annihilate” South Korea, the country's “main enemy,” state media reported on Wednesday.
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Mr. Kim, accompanied by senior party and military officials, visited several munitions factories on Monday and Tuesday.
On this occasion, he announced that Pyongyang's priority should be “strengthening military capabilities for self-defense and nuclear deterrence first and foremost,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea's first man said, according to the Korean Central News Agency, that North Korea will not provoke a conflict “unilaterally,” but it also “does not intend to avoid war.”
He added, “If (South Korea) dares to try to use its armed forces against (North Korea) or threaten its sovereignty and security… we will not hesitate to annihilate (North Korea) by mobilizing all means and means.” Mr. Kim warned, according to the official agency.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since the conflict ended in 1953 in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. For more than 70 years, the peninsula has experienced alternating periods of heightened tensions and relative relaxation.
Their relationship is currently at its lowest level in decades.
Last year, North Korea enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution and launched several intercontinental ballistic missiles, in violation of UN resolutions.
The United States, South Korea and Japan accuse Pyongyang of violating international sanctions by sending missiles to Russia, which is at war with Ukraine.
