Kim Jong-Un Orders 'Exponential' Expansion of North Korea's Nuclear Arsenal

North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-Un has ordered the "exponential" expansion of his country's nuclear arsenal, state media reported Sunday, after he welcomed in the New Year with another weapons test. 

“They are now keen on isolating and stifling (North Korea), unprecedented in human history,” Kim said at a recent meeting of the communist politburo, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. “The prevailing situation calls for making redoubled efforts to overwhelmingly beef up the military muscle.”

His remarks occurred during a six-day plenary meeting aimed at determining objectives for 2023, where he also called for “an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal” to mass produce battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea. 

“Prospectively, as a key offensive weapon of our military forces, it will carry out its own combat mission to overwhelm the enemy,” Kim said, adding that new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICMB) would provide “quick counterstrike capability"

Kim's comments come after a year in which the North Korean military tested more missiles than any other year in the country's short history. Over the weekend, the hermit kingdom fired three short-range ballistic missiles from a location south of the capital Pyongyang, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

South Korea, which is now ruled by conservative President Yoon Suk-Yeol following last year's presidential election, responded to Kim's comments by calling them “provocative language that seriously harms peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.” Yoon is known to have a much more hawkish stance than his predecessor Moon Jae-In. 

The Defense Ministry urged Pyongyang to “immediately stop” developing their nuclear weapons program and return to a path of denuclearization, warning that the “Kim Jong Un regime will come to an end if North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons.”

It also pledged to maintain its military operations to “firmly respond” to any potential threat, explaining that it will strengthen its “three-axis” defense system designed to neutralize any nuclear and missile threats from the North.