Adding to the series of North Korean state media reports making the rounds in the west during the annual spike in rhetoric during the US-South Korea military drills, Kim Jong Un is said to have ordered more underground nuclear tests to improve the nation’s attack capability.
Earlier this week, Kim had claimed North Korea had mastered the miniaturization of nuclear arms for deployment, something US officials have previously insisted that they believe North Korea won’t be able to do for years, and last week Kim ordered the military to ready attack with nuclear arms.
North Korea and the US tend to exchange a flurry of threats this time every year, surrounding the US-South Korea drills, only to see the tension evaporate later in the spring when North Korea’s military is redeployed to plant crops.
North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test in December. Kim claimed this was a hydrogen bomb, though all evidence is that it was a traditional atomic bomb and was not nearly powerful enough for a hydrogen bomb.