North Korea’s Kim Jong Un unveiled new goals to further bolster his regime’s military in 2023 during a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Dec. 27, state media reported on Wednesday.
The Sixth Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the party’s 8th Central Committee came as tensions between the two Koreas are nearing boiling point after multiple North Korean drones entered South Korea’s airspace on Monday.
That marked the first time in five years that a North Korean drone crossed the Military Demarcation Line and violated South Korea’s airspace, and prompted the South Korean military to deploy fighter jets that fired upon the drones, but none were shot down.
Speaking at the meeting, Jong Un appeared to suggest that he will continue with his provocative display of weapons testing and missile launches next year while pointing to a “newly created challenging situation” on the Korean peninsula and in international politics.
“He specified the principles of foreign affairs and the direction of the struggle against the enemy that our party and government must thoroughly abide by in order to protect sovereign rights and defend national interests,” state-owned KCNA reported.
“New core goals for strengthening self-defensive capabilities to be strongly pursued in 2023 have been presented in preparation for diverse fluctuations in the political situation,” North Korea’s official news agency added.
The agency stopped short of stating exactly what those goals were.
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is launched in this undated photo released on Nov. 19, 2022. (KCNA via Reuters)
Missile Tests Soar in 2022
North Korea has performed a record number of missile tests this year—around 92 ballistic and other missiles—at one point, launching 23 missiles in one day alone.
Since 1984, North Korea has launched more than 270 missile launches and nuclear tests, of which more than a quarter were conducted this year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project.
Many of the launches were designed to develop “top priority” strategic weapons under a five-year plan initially presented at a Workers’ Party congress in early 2021.
Those strategic weapons include tactical nuclear weapons, a new intercontinental ballistic missile, hypersonic gliding flight warheads, nuclear-powered submarines, and a reconnaissance satellite.
Earlier in November, North Korea fired yet another suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), prompting residents in parts of central and northern Japan to seek shelter amid fraying relations between the two.
Shortly after, Jong Un warned that the United States and South Korea would pay “the most horrible price in history” if they used military force against North Korea.
That prompted the Biden administration to issue a statement condemning the tests and stating that it would “take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland” and its allies South Korea and Japan.
Biden also noted that the string of ballistic missiles launched by Jong Un in 2022 have been a “flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions” and “needlessly raised tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.”
A TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea’s missile launch with file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station, South Korea, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)
North Korea Condemns Joint US-South Korea Military Exercises
Relations between South Korea, the United States, and North Korea have been further strained after South Korean and U.S. forces conducted large-scale military exercises this year in an effort to improve military readiness amid North Korea’s ongoing missile launches.
North Korea later condemned the joint air drills as an “invasion rehearsal.”
Additionally, the United States, South Korea, and Japan have vowed to work closely to prevent North Korea from evading international sanctions and financing its nuclear program through illegal cyber activities, officials said earlier this month.
“Over the last 30 years, the international community stood firm on our common goal of North Korea’s denuclearization. There will not be a single scenario under which we revisit this goal,” South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Gunn said at a Dec. 13 meeting in Indonesia alongside the two countries’ top nuclear envoys, where they discussed North Korean nuclear threats. “Not in a million years,” he added.
Reuters contributed to this report.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
