Kim emphasised that Pyongyang intends to cement its position on the global stage through its nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shuttered the door on dialogue with South Korea, claiming his forces could \u201ccompletely destroy\u201d his southern neighbour, while also signalling that the future of dialogue with the United States required Washington to discard \u201chostile\u201d policies towards Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
If Washington \u201crespects our country\u2019s current status as stipulated in the Constitution \u2026 and withdraws its hostile policy \u2026 there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States\u201d, Kim said on Wednesday, as the country wrapped up a key week of meetings by the ruling Workers\u2019 Party of Korea (WPK).<\/p>\n
According to a report on Thursday by North Korea\u2019s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim also called for developing new weapons systems to bolster his nuclear-armed military.<\/p>\n
Kim stipulated intercontinental ballistic missiles that could be launched from underwater and an expanded arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, such as artillery and short-range missiles, capable of targeting South Korea, according to KCNA.<\/p>\n
He also said the accelerated development of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes in recent years had \u201cpermanently cemented\u201d the country\u2019s status as a nuclear-armed state.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur status as a nuclear-armed country plays an important role in deterring enemies\u2019 potential threats and maintaining regional stability,\u201d Kim said, calling the country\u2019s nuclear weapons \u201ca guarantee and safety device\u201d of its security and interests.<\/p>\n
According to South Korea\u2019s official Yonhap News Agency, the once every-five-years Worker\u2019s Party congress, which brought together some 5,000 party representatives from across the country, was closed out on Wednesday with a military parade on the streets of the capital Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
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State media photos of the military parade showed formations of soldiers marching through the brightly-lit Kim Il Sung Square under a podium, where Kim and his daughter stood with senior officials.<\/p>\n
Some troops in the parade wore camouflage and special warfare gear, and a formation of jets held a fly-by. It was not immediately clear what, if any, military \u2060hardware was on display.<\/p>\n
The presence of Kim\u2019s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, at the parade fuelled further speculation over \u2060whether she is being groomed as his successor.<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kim emphasised that Pyongyang intends to cement its position on the global stage through its nuclear capabilities. North Korean leader<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}