Kim renews call for N Korea military to ‘bolster their strength’

North Korean leader made call as he praised ‘modernity and heroism’ of country’s armed forces after massive parade on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called on the country’s military to “bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy” as new satellite imagery showed increased preparations for a possible nuclear test.

Kim made the remarks during photo sessions with soldiers, broadcasters, and others involved in the vast military parade the country staged on Monday to mark the 90th anniversary of the army’s founding.

Photos released by state media showed Kim mounted on a white horse and wearing a white, military-style tunic with gold trim as he reviewed the troops.

Monday’s parade had featured several of North Korea’s latest missiles, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-17, and a recently tested hypersonic missile.

The display demonstrated the “modernity, heroism and radical development of the armed forces of the Republic and their matchless military and technological superiority,” Kim told the soldiers at the photo session, state news agency KCNA reported.

North Korea says it opposes war and that its weapons are for self-defence, but at Monday’s parade, Kim said the mission of its nuclear force went beyond deterring war and also included defending the nation’s “fundamental interests”.

Nuclear preparations

Last month North Korea resumed testing its largest ICBMs, and there are signs it could soon test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.

“Current satellite imagery indicates that preparations are well underway and should not be discounted as insignificant activity,” the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on Thursday.

Analysts, along with South Korean and US officials, have said that North Korea appears to be restoring Tunnel No 3 at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, which was used for underground nuclear blasts before it was closed in 2018 during denuclearisation talks with Washington and Seoul.

Kim has since said the country is no longer bound by that self-imposed moratorium on tests, but North Korea has not commented on the work or confirmed its purpose.

Commercial satellite imagery from Monday shows the construction of new buildings, movement of lumber, and an increase in equipment and supplies immediately outside the new entrance to Tunnel No 3, CSIS said.

“The date of a seventh nuclear test will undoubtedly depend exclusively upon the personal decision of Kim Jong Un,” the report said.