South Korea-US drills trigger Kim Jong-un to pledge nuclear force expansion

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un condemned South Korea-US military drills and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, state media said Tuesday.

He made the statement as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems during a visit to the western port of Nampo on Monday.

It comes after the South Korean and US militaries kicked off their annual large-scale summertime exercise to bolster readiness against growing North Korean threats.

The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, which the allies describe as defensive, will mobilise 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Koreans, for computer-simulated command post operations and field training.

North Korea has long denounced the allies’ joint drills as invasion rehearsals, and Kim has often used them to justify his own military displays and testing activities aimed at expanding his nuclear weapons program.

The Korean Peninsula has been in a technical state of war for some eight decades, with the Demilitarised Zone separating the two countries.

South Korea seeks to reduce border tensions

While inspecting the warship Choe Hyon, a 5,000-tonne-class destroyer first unveiled in April, Kim said the allies’ joint military drills show hostility and their supposed “will to ignite a war,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

The exercises have grown more provocative than before by incorporating a “nuclear element,” requiring Pyongyang to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures, Kim claimed.

Kang Yu-jung, spokesperson for South Korea’s new liberal President Lee Jae Myung who wants to improve ties with the North, said Seoul has “always regarded the Ulchi exercises as defensive” but offered no further comment on Kim’s remarks.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim accelerated his military nuclear programme and deepened alignment with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programmes, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit with US President Donald Trump during his first term.

In his latest message to Pyongyang on Friday, Lee, who took office in June, said he would seek to restore a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce border tensions and called for North Korea to respond to the South’s efforts to rebuild trust and revive talks.

The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between the Koreas, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes.

But South Korea suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea’s launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume front-line military activities and propaganda campaigns.

The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement.