With all the hubbub going on in Washington, poor Kim Jong-un must have felt left out and ignored. Kim doesn’t like to be ignored. If the world doesn’t pay attention to him for a few weeks, he’ll throw a tantrum and threaten to destroy his enemies.
State media in North Korea reported yesterday that Kim addressed the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, talking up the economy, the strides in missile technology, and how he was going to bring the U.S. to its knees.
“Our external political activities must focus on our arch-enemy and the fundamental obstacle to our revolutionary development, the United States,” Kim said, according to NBC. “The effort will focus on overpowering and bringing them to their knees,” he added.
Kim also threatened to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Kim noted that regardless of who is in the White House, “the true nature of the U.S. and its fundamental policies towards North Korea never change.”
NBC News reports that Kim spoke for 9 hours on Saturday. And this guy has a nuclear arsenal? Yikes.
Kim reportedly listed multiple weapons systems under development, The Associated Press reported, citing KNCA, such as multi-warhead missiles, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and solid-fueled long-range missiles. However, it is unclear how extensive North Korea’s weapons systems are.
Not only is it unclear how extensive they are, but it’s also an open question whether they even exist except in the feverish imagination of the Communist dictator. Even Kim admits North Korea’s economy is a basketcase. The idea that there are tens of billions of dollars needed to develop, test, and deploy any of these weapons is absurd.
Kim was photographed last year inspecting a new submarine but it remains unclear whether it was nuclear powered or whether it would be capable of launching ballistic missiles.
But Kim is capable of perfecting small tactical nuclear devices, which is very worrisome.
[North Korea expert Ankit] Panda said Kim’s interest in tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons made sense, even though they can be “very inefficient in their use of fissile material,” which isn’t easy for North Korea to get.
“North Korea’s interest in these weapons isn’t surprising from a strategic point of view — in fact, it augments Kim’s preferred nuclear strategy quite well,” said Panda, author of “Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea.”
Panda said North Korea likely wants these tactical nuclear weapons to combat a potential conventional domestic invasion. That way, Kim could keep his strategic, longer-range nuclear weapons “for retaliation against the US and civilian centers in Japan and South Korea if the US and allies press on after that initial nuclear use.”
Kim’s nuclear missiles are still unreliable and wildly inaccurate. But you don’t have to be accurate with a nuclear weapon, just use a reliable means of getting it in the general vicinity of the target. That much, North Korea appears capable of doing. And that’s why Joe Biden is likely to have his hands full soon after taking office if Kim’s boasts actually become reality.
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