N. Korea’s Kim vows to bolster nuke capability

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons and threatened to use them if provoked in a speech he delivered at a military parade that featured powerful missiles capable of targeting the country’s rivals, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim’s remarks suggest he will continue provocative weapons tests in a pressure campaign aimed at wresting concessions from the United States and its allies. The parade Monday night marked the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s army — the backbone of the Kim family’s authoritarian rule — and was held as the country’s economy is battered by pandemic-related difficulties, punishing U.S.-led sanctions and its own mismanagement.

State television showed Kim, dressed in a white military ceremonial coat, smiling and waving from a balcony with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and top deputies, in response to roaring cheers from thousands of troops and spectators. Fireworks lit up the night sky and illuminated drones formed the country’s flag.

“[We] will continue to take measures for further developing the nuclear forces of our state at the fastest possible speed,” Kim told the troops and crowd gathered at a plaza in the capital, Pyongyang.

He said North Korea could proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened by attacks and called for his nuclear forces to be fully prepared to go “in motion at any time.”

“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,” Kim said. “If any forces try to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish its unexpected second mission,” which would leave any invading force “perished,” he said.