Kim Jong Un Says At Parade That North Korea Will Continue To Strengthen Its Nuclear Forces

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the parade in honor of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army (KPA), said on Tuesday that his country will continue to strengthen its nuclear forces at maximum speed

SEOUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2022) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the parade in honor of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army (KPA), said on Tuesday that his country will continue to strengthen its nuclear forces at maximum speed.

"We will advance faster and more dynamically along the road of building up the self-defensive and modern armed forces, which we have followed unwaveringly, and, especially, will continue to take measures for further developing the nuclear forces of our state at the fastest possible speed," Kim was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central news Agency (KCNA).

North Korea will carefully prepare itself to be able to use the deterrent force of nuclear weapons at any time, Kim said.

"In particular, the nuclear forces, the symbol of our national strength and the core of our military power, should be strengthened in terms of both quality and scale, so that they can perform nuclear combat capabilities in any situations of warfare, according to purposes and missions of different operations and by various means," the North Korean leader said.

At the same time, Kim stressed that although the country's nuclear weapons are created to "deter a war," their purpose cannot be limited merely to this single aspect.

"The fundamental mission of our nuclear forces is to deter a war, but our nukes can never be confined to the single mission of war deterrent even at a time when a situation we are not desirous of at all is created on this land," he said.

Kim warned that the North Korean army stands ready to repel any foreign power if necessary. He said the country would never stop to improve its armed forces.

"We should continuously grow stronger. There is no satisfaction or accomplishment in cultivating strength for defending ourselves, and, whoever we confront, our military supremacy should be more secure," Kim said.

What the North Korean military needs now is modernizing its technology and strengthening the political ideology with a view to creating high-tech military forces acting for the benefit of the cause of the revolution, Kim said.

The annual military parade, which marked the 90th anniversary of the KPA founding this year, took place on the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang at about 10 p.m. local time (13:00 GMT) on Monday. South Korean media reported that Pyongyang had mobilized about 20,000 soldiers and military equipment.

Over 250 units of equipment were observed at the parade rehearsal, according to media citing satellite imagery. Those reportedly included the Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile, the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile.