He North Korean leader Kim Jong Un He has urged increased nuclear production for military purposes and more powerful weapons, state media reported on Tuesday. Kim’s call coincides with the arrival of a US aircraft carrier in South Korea on Tuesday.
In a meeting with members of the country’s nuclear weapons institute, the North Korean leader said they should prepare to use their missiles “anytime and anywhere,” the state-run KCNA news agency said.
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Kim called for “proactively expanding the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials in view of implementing the plan to (…) exponentially increase nuclear arsenals,” he said.
The leader also “encouraged to continue producing powerful nuclear weapons” which in his opinion will cause fear in the enemies of the North, the agency added.
Photographs released by the official Rodong Sinmun daily showed Kim, surrounded by uniformed soldiers, inspecting a row of suspected nuclear warheads identified as “Hwasan-31,” which means volcano in Korean.
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Such green warheads can be mounted on different types of missiles, according to the tables and diagrams on the walls. Experts warned that the presentation of a potential tactical nuclear weapon shows signs of technical progress and could herald an imminent nuclear test.
Kim Jong Un (center) inspecting a nuclear weapons project at an unknown location in North Korea
Seventh nuclear test?
North Korea unveiled a significantly reduced tactical nuclear warhead and many are wondering if it can really go off
North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year, and
Kim recently called for an “exponential increase in weapons production,” including tactical nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s state media carried a wave of reports on nuclear issues on Tuesday, an indication that the country is preparing for its seventh nuclear test, analysts say.
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“North Korea has unveiled a significantly reduced tactical nuclear warhead, and many are wondering if it can really go off,” said Cheong Song-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute. “It raised the possibility that North Korea will carry out its seventh nuclear test with these tactical nuclear warheads,” he told AFP.
Pyongyang has entered into a “give and take” of missile launches and tests in response to US and South Korean military exercises, which is a heavy burden for the impoverished country.
The unveiling of the tactical nuclear weapon coincides with the arrival in South Korea on Tuesday of a US Navy carrier strike group.
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📸 The images of the North Korean trialsNorth Korea’s unmanned submarine nuclear attack craft “reached the destination point in the waters of Hongwon Bay, with its test warhead detonating underwater,” local media KCNA reported. pic.twitter.com/4fLGknC3nf
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The Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years., with the intensification of joint exercises by Washington and Seoul while Pyongyan increasingly tests weapons. But North Korean responses could prove too costly for the impoverished country.
“North Korea has warned of an overwhelming response to every joint military exercise, but given the number of missiles launched, it cannot go on like this indefinitely,” Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, told AFP. “In that case, the seventh nuclear test will mark a kind of end, they will declare themselves a nuclear power and they will negotiate again with the United States,” he anticipated.
AFP
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