(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his country’s top military officials to “annihilate” South Korea and the United States in the event the countries initiate an armed confrontation, Seoul reported Monday. state agency KCNA.
“If the enemy opts for confrontation and military provocation against the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), our army must deliver a mortal blow to completely annihilate it by mobilizing all the strongest means […] without a moment’s hesitation,” Kim said during a meeting with top North Korean commanders in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to KCNA.
In a long speech given the same day at the end of a high mass at the end of the year setting the country’s strategic orientations, the North Korean leader launched new threats of nuclear strikes against Seoul and ordered the acceleration of military preparations for a “war” that could “be triggered at any time” on the peninsula, according to the same source.
Kim Jong-un accused Washington of “various types of military threats” and ordered to “mobilize all physical means and forces, including nuclear force, in an emergency” against South Korea.
The leader said he no longer seeks reconciliation and reunification with the South, pointing to the “persistent and uncontrollable crisis situation” that he said was triggered by Seoul and Washington.
The two allies have strengthened their defense cooperation in the face of a record series of weapons tests from Pyongyang in 2023.
On Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to keep Pyongyang’s military provocations at bay by means of an extensive joint deterrence system with Washington, the implementation of which is planned for the first half of 2024.
The system will “fundamentally deter any nuclear or missile threat” from North Korea, Yoon said in his New Year’s speech.
In 2023, Pyongyang put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, engraved its status as a nuclear power in its constitution and tested the most powerful ballistic missile in its arsenal.