North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered the military to “accelerate” war preparations, including its nuclear program, in a bid to counter what he calls unprecedented confrontational moves by the United States.

In a speech delivered at the year-end meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Thursday, Kim “set forth the militant tasks for the People’s Army and the munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defense sectors to further accelerate war preparations.”

The North’s leader also stressed that the “military situation” on the Korean peninsula had become “extreme” due to “unprecedented” anti-North confrontations with the US, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) further quoted Kim as saying.

The order came a week after Kim warned that his country would not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if “provoked” with nukes. Earlier this week, he also described 2023 as a “year of great turn and great change” in which Pyongyang saw “eye-opening victories.”

This is while South Korea, the US and Japan have ramped up their so-called defense cooperation in the face of an unprecedented series of weapons tests by the North this year.

Earlier this month, a US nuclear-powered submarine arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan. Washington also flew its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo, only to irk Pyongyang.

The UN Security Council has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since it first conducted a nuclear test in 2006. The country has been under harsh sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council for years.

But the North last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear program, which it says is defensive.

Pyongyang has previously warned that the US is increasing provocations of a “nuclear war” by deploying nuclear-capable bombers to the region. It said that US nuclear assets stationed on the Korean peninsula will become Pyongyang’s “first targets for destruction” in the event of an actual conflict.

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