North Korea’s Kim Jong Un went after South Korea’s president for the second time in a week, warning again on Tuesday that Pyongyang will push forward with its plans to be a top nuclear player.
Kim accused South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol of issuing “some tasteless and vulgar comment about the end of the Republic” in a recent speech and said it shows “he is totally consumed by his blind faith in his master’s strength,” he added, according to a Reuters report, in reference to Seoul’s partnership with Washington.
“To be honest, we have absolutely no intention of attacking South Korea,” Kim said during a speech at a military school named after him, the Kim Jong Un National Defense University.
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Kim’s comments came after South Korea’s president condemned Pyongyang’s recent reveal of a new nuclear facility last month and in turn, during its Armed Forces Day last week, displayed a new Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile, which, according to a Newsweek report, is capable of destroying underground facilities in North Korea.
Yoon has repeatedly pushed for a denuclearized North Korea as regional tensions continue to escalate.
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But Kim, who has long looked to expand North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, objected to the calls to denuclearize and said, “Every time I stated our position on the use of military force, I clearly and consistently used the qualification ‘if.’”
“If the enemies try to use force against our country, the republic’s military will use all offensive power without hesitation,” he added. “This does not preclude the use of nuclear weapons.”
“Our footsteps toward becoming a military superpower and a nuclear power will accelerate,” Kim added.
The comments were the second time in a week that Kim directed an ominous message at his southern neighbor after he warned earlier this month that North Korea will respond with nuclear force if its sovereignty is threatened.
According to state run news agency KNCA last week, Kim “affirmed that ‘if’ the enemy, seized with extreme foolishness and recklessness, attempt to use armed forces encroaching upon the sovereignty of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]… the DPRK would use without hesitation all the offensive forces it has possessed, including nuclear weapons,” Reuters reported.