Kim hints at deploying nuclear missiles to border as tensions rise

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has doubled down on his nuclear arms buildup to overwhelm ‘‘hostile forces’’ at a key meeting where military leaders approved unspecified new operational duties for frontline army units.

Members of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission had decided to supplement an ‘‘important military action plan’’ on the duties of frontline troops, and to further strengthen the country’s nuclear war deterrent, state media said yesterday.

North Korea hasn’t specified the new duties, but analysts say the country could be planning to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border.

While North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that could reach the United States mainland gets much of the international attention, it is also developing a variety of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the US.

During the military commission’s three-day meeting, Kim called for his entire army to ‘‘go all out’’ in carrying out the plans to bolster the nation’s military muscle and consolidate ‘‘powerful self-defence capabilities for overwhelming any hostile forces and thus reliably protect the dignity of the great country’’.

Some analysts say North Korea’s possible plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to frontline artillery units may require commandand-control changes, as its nuclearcapable weapons have so far been handled by the army’s strategic force.

State media reports of the meeting did not include any direct criticism of Washington or Seoul, amid a prolonged stalemate in nuclear negotiations.

The meeting came amid signs that North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear weapons test since September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear weapon that could be mounted on its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Experts say North Korea may use its next nuclear test to claim that it has acquired the ability to build a small nuclear warhead to fit its short-range missiles or other weapons it recently tested, including a purported hypersonic missile and a long-range cruise missile. Smaller warheads would also be necessary for the North’s stated pursuit of a multiwarhead ICBM.

Kim has punctuated his recent tests with repeated comments that North Korea would use its nuclear weapons proactively if threatened or provoked, which experts say points to an escalating nuclear doctrine. South Korea has been spending heavily to expand its conventional arms in recent years, but some analysts say the country has no clear way to counter the threat posed by Kim’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles. –AP