North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country must rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal, describing U.S.–South Korea military exercises as “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war,” state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
South Korea and its ally, the United States, began joint military drills this week, including testing an upgraded response to what Seoul called heightened North Korean nuclear threats.
Pyongyang routinely criticises such drills as rehearsals for invasion and often responds with weapons tests, while Seoul and Washington maintain that the exercises are purely defensive.
The 11-day annual exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be on a similar scale to 2024 but with 20 of 40 field training events rescheduled to September, South Korea’s military said. The adjustment follows President Lee Jae Myung’s call to ease tensions with the North, though analysts remain sceptical of Pyongyang’s response.
Kim, during a visit to a navy destroyer on Monday, said the drills were “a clear expression of … their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational” toward North Korea, according to KCNA’s English translation of his remarks. He added that the security environment required the North to “rapidly expand” its nuclear armament, noting that the latest drills included a “nuclear element.”
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Efforts to counter North Korea’s nuclear development are expected to feature in upcoming talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington.
“Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and its determination to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,” said Hong Min, a North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
A 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists estimated that while North Korea may have produced enough fissile material for up to 90 nuclear warheads, it had likely assembled closer to 50.
Meanwhile, North Korea is pressing ahead with military modernisation, planning to build a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year while testing cruise and anti-air missiles for its warships.
