Nuclear security

N. Korea vows to bolster its nuclear arsenal ‘at maximum speed’

North Korea has promised to bolster its nuclear arsenal “at the maximum pace,” while blaming America for bringing the region to a brink of a nuclear war with “aggressive” joint US-S. Korea drills.

On Monday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry branded the US “the chieftain of aggression and war, and harasser of peace who is escalating tension.”

While the confrontation “between the DPRK and the US has lasted for more than half a century… the US aggression hysteria has never reached such a height and the situation on the Korean peninsula has never inched close to the brink of nuclear war as in the period of the recent drills,” a spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry said, as quoted by official North Korean news agency KCNA.

“Now that the US is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called ‘maximum pressure and engagement,’ the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence,” the statement reads.