Politics North Korea's ruler Kim wants to expand nuclear arsenal

SDA

29.1.2025 - 02:37

HANDOUT - This undated photo provided by North Korea's state news agency KCNA on Jan. 29, 2025 shows Kim Jong Un (M), North Korea's ruler, touring a nuclear material production facility at an undisclosed location, according to KCNA. Independent journalists did not have access to the event, which can be seen in this picture distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. The watermark in Korean on the image reads as stated by the source: "KCNA" is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. Photo: Uncredited/KCNA/KNS/dpa - ATTENTION: For editorial use only and only with full attribution of the above credit
HANDOUT - This undated photo provided by North Korea's state news agency KCNA on Jan. 29, 2025 shows Kim Jong Un (M), North Korea's ruler, touring a nuclear material production facility at an undisclosed location, according to KCNA. Independent journalists did not have access to the event, which can be seen in this picture distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. The watermark in Korean on the image reads as stated by the source: "KCNA" is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. Photo: Uncredited/KCNA/KNS/dpa - ATTENTION: For editorial use only and only with full attribution of the above credit
Keystone

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a facility for the production of nuclear material and called for the country's nuclear capabilities to be expanded.

Keystone-SDA

The security situation makes it "indispensable" to constantly strengthen the country's nuclear shield, Kim was quoted as saying by North Korea's state news agency KCNA. Exact details of the location and time of the inspection visit are not given in the report.

On Tuesday (local time), a Washington government representative confirmed for the first time that US President Donald Trump would continue to pursue the goal of completely disarming North Korea of nuclear weapons during his second term in office. "President Trump will strive for the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term," South Korea's official Yonhap news agency quoted Brian Hughes, spokesman for the National Security Council, as saying.

During his first term as US president, Trump pursued an unconventional North Korea policy, which led from initial threats to direct diplomacy with Kim Jong Un. The two met three times: first in Singapore, then in Hanoi and finally in the Korean Demilitarized Zone in June 2019. Despite these efforts, there was no agreement on the denuclearization of North Korea.