Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleKim Jong Un urges rapid nuclear expansion in response to US-South Korea drills, viewing them as provocative. North Korea plans to enhance its military capabilities.
By Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needed to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and called U.S.-South Korea military exercises an "obvious expression of their will to provoke war," state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
South Korea and its ally the United States kicked off joint military drills this week, including testing an upgraded response to heightened North Korean nuclear threats.
Pyongyang regularly criticises such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.
The 11-day annual exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be on a similar scale to 2024 but adjusted by rescheduling 20 out of 40 field training events to September, South Korea's military said earlier. Those delays come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says he wants to ease tensions with North Korea, though analysts are sceptical about Pyongyang's response.
The exercises were a "clear expression of ... their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational" to North Korea, Kim said during his visit to a navy destroyer on Monday, according to KCNA's English translation of his remarks.
He said the security environment required the North to "rapidly expand" its nuclear armament, noting that recent U.S.-South Korea exercises involved a "nuclear element".
Efforts by the United States and its allies to tackle North Korea's development of nuclear weapons are expected to be discussed at an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington.
"Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons," said Hong Min, North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
A report by the Federation of American Scientists last year concluded that while North Korea may have produced enough fissile material to build up to 90 nuclear warheads, it had likely assembled closer to 50.
North Korea plans to build a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for those warships.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies and Stephen Coates)
Nuclear armament refers to the stockpiling and development of nuclear weapons by a country, which can be used for deterrence or as a means of warfare.
Military exercises are training activities conducted by armed forces to prepare for potential conflicts, enhance operational readiness, and improve coordination among units.
Denuclearization is the process of reducing or eliminating a country's nuclear weapons arsenal, often as part of international agreements aimed at promoting global security.
Ulchi Freedom Shield is an annual military exercise conducted by South Korea and the United States to enhance their defense capabilities against potential threats.
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