Kim slams military drills while inspecting warship
Leader Kim Jong-un condemned South Korean-US military drills and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, state media said, as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems.
Kim's visit to the western port of Nampo on Monday came as the South Korean and US militaries kicked off their annual large-scale summertime exercise to bolster readiness against growing North Korean threats.
The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, which the allies describe as defensive, will mobilise 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Koreans.
North Korea has long denounced the allies' joint drills as invasion rehearsals and Kim has often used them to justify his own military displays and testing activities aimed at expanding his nuclear weapons programme.
While inspecting the warship Choe Hyon, a 5,000-tonne-class destroyer first unveiled in April, Kim said the allies' joint military drills show hostility and their supposed 'will to ignite a war,' the North's Korean Central News Agency said.
He claimed that the exercises have grown more provocative than before by incorporating a 'nuclear element,' requiring the North to respond with 'proactive and overwhelming' countermeasures.
'The security environment around the DPRK is getting more serious day by day and the prevailing situation requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearisation,' KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The government of South Korea's new liberal President Lee Jae-myung, who has expressed a willingness to repair ties and resume dialogue with the North, did not immediately respond to Kim's comments. — AP
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