North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to “indefinitely” pursue the development of nuclear weapons during a visit to two nuclear weapons facilities — a move seen as an implicit message to new U.S. President Donald Trump.
During Kim’s inspection of the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute and the unnamed facility for producing weapons-grade nuclear materials, the North Korean leader warned of an "inevitable" confrontation with hostile nations — a veiled reference to the U.S. — and called 2025 “a crucial year” for bolstering the country’s nuclear forces, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday without specifying the visit’s date.
Photos accompanying the report showed the North Korean leader walking with other officials in a massive hall containing row after row of centrifuges believed to enrich uranium by spinning it at high speeds.
“The DPRK’s security situation, the world's most unstable situation in which a long-term confrontation with the most vicious hostile countries is inevitable, makes it indispensable for the country to steadily strengthen the nuclear shield,” Kim said, using the acronym for the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Analysts said news of the inspection — just the second time state-run media has reported on a visit by Kim to the secretive facilities — was intended to send a message to Trump about the country's growing nuclear capabilities.
Trump, who in 2018 became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader, held two other meetings with Kim. On the campaign trail, he repeatedly touted his personal relationship with the strongman. In an interview last week, Trump called Kim “a smart guy” and said that he was willing to reach out to him again.
Those comments came after Trump, and new defense chief Pete Hegseth, referred to North Korea in recent weeks as a “nuclear power” — remarks that raised eyebrows in Tokyo and Seoul, which have both urged Washington to retain its stance that Pyongyang must relinquish its nuclear arsenal.
On Wednesday, the White House appeared to attempt to tamp down those concerns, saying that Trump will pursue the "complete denuclearization of North Korea.”
"President Trump will pursue the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term," U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes was quoted by South Korea’s Yonhap news as saying.
The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Japan Times.
But much has changed on the Korean Peninsula in the years following the 2019 breakdown in earlier denuclearization talks that took place during Trump’s first term in office.
Kim has doubled down on developing a nuclear and missile arsenal that is far more diverse and formidable than it was just five years ago, pouring resources into building powerful missiles that can better evade defenses, potentially carry multiple nuclear warheads and strike targets in neighboring South Korea and Japan and even the continental United States.
Indeed, Kim vowed at a key year-end policy meeting last month to take "the toughest anti-U.S. counteraction," though he did not elaborate on what this meant.
The North Korean strongman has also built stronger ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, agreeing to a mutual defense pact with Moscow and even sending troops to Russia to fight in its war against Ukraine. Putin, for his part, is believed to have given Kim an economic lifeline and advanced technology that could aid its weapons and satellite programs, among other things.
Considering this newfound leverage, it’s unclear if Kim would be willing to sit down for talks to relinquish this arsenal. Rather, observers say he might be more interested in meeting to discuss arms control — and the de facto recognition as a nuclear power that would come with such talks.
"Kim Jong Un may be signaling his intentions and capabilities for deterrence to skip the ‘fire and fury’ stage of Trump’s first administration," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "However, Kim appears in no hurry to negotiate with Trump, given the enduring U.S. goal of North Korean denuclearization and as long as significant benefits are flowing to Pyongyang from Russia’s war against Ukraine."
In a possible sign that this might be the path Kim could take, he hinted in Wednesday’s report that the North’s nuclear buildup would continue unabated.
“It is our firm political and military stand and invariable noble task and duty to develop the state's nuclear counteraction posture indefinitely,” Kim said.
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