North Korea is putting its munitions industry and nuclear weapons sector on a war footing, following months of raised tensions with the U.S. and NATO-aligned countries in the region, a run of missile tests and border activity.
Pyongyang’s military and defense sectors will “further accelerate war preparations” in the face of “unprecedented anti-DPRK [North Korea] confrontation maneuvers of the U.S. and its vassal forces,” North Korea’s state media reported on Thursday.
Long-simmering tensions between North Korea and its southern neighbor South Korea, a firm U.S. ally, have been stoked throughout this year by a raft of North Korean missile tests and bellicose announcements. South Korea and Japan have expressed grave concerns about North Korea’s military activity, calling Pyongyang’s actions a severe threat to their national security and turning to the U.S. for support—something that has angered North Korea.
Earlier this month, North Korea launched a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the U.S., which Washington quickly condemned. North Korea said it launched its Hwasong-18 missile to judge its readiness for a confrontation amid hostile exchanges with the U.S.
Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool/Getty Images
A spokesperson for North Korea’s Defense Ministry said on December 17 that Washington and Seoul “are going to finish the end of the year with a preview of a nuclear war.”
The “grave political and military situation” on and around the Korean peninsula “has reached its limit,” the secretive country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, said in readouts published by Pyongyang on Thursday.
The U.S. has bolstered assets in the region, including sending its USS Missouri nuclear-powered submarine to the South Korean port of Busan in mid-December.
“Clear is the intention of the U.S. which dispatched the nuclear-powered submarine Missouri to the Korean peninsula as soon as it hatched a dangerous plot for a nuclear war in Washington,” North Korea’s Defense Ministry said. This “critical situation” was pushing Pyongyang towards “more offensive” actions, it added.
Newsweek has asked the U.S. State Department for comment by email.
The U.S., Japan, and South Korea jointly announced on December 19 that the three countries had activated a real-time data sharing mechanism to monitor North Korea’s missile activity. A joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, issued the following day, said: “The United States reiterates that its commitments to defend the ROK [South Korea] and Japan are ironclad and backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear.”
The U.S. and South Korea also held a joint meeting on nuclear weapons activity earlier this month, which North Korea labeled an “open declaration on nuclear confrontation to make the use of nuclear weapons against the DPRK,” referring to the country by its full title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In late November, North Korea launched its first military reconnaissance satellite, which the North Korean leader heralded as a “new era of space power.” The United Nations slammed the launch as using banned ballistic missile technology.
South Korea then increased surveillance along the countries’ borders and partially suspended an agreement aimed at keeping a lid on border tensions. Pyongyang in turn fully voided the agreement.
North Korean soldiers were present at numerous, previously out-of-use guard posts along the border between the two countries, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said at the time.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
