“He’s showing that he’s bold and he’s proud and he’s involved in this,” Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation told CNN. “And that the tactical nuclear weapons program is his.”
As North Korea threatens to beef up its nuclear capabilities, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that the nation has nothing to gain from it.
"North Korea is consistently developing and upgrading its nuclear weapons and posing nuclear threats to not only our Republic of Korea but the world," Yoon told reporters, referring to South Korea by its official name.
"I believe it has nothing to gain from nuclear weapons."
Watch | WION Fineprint | North Korea is readying itself for a nuclear test: UN Report
The seven recent North Korean missile launches were all "tactical nuclear" drills, state media said Monday, which were personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un.
At a key party congress in January 2021, Kim outlined a five-year defence development plan, calling for the development of smaller and lighter nuclear weapons for "more tactical uses."
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up combined naval exercises in recent weeks, infuriating Pyongyang which sees them as rehearsals for invasion and justifies its blitz of missile launches as necessary "countermeasures".
North Korea on Thursday launched a ballistic missile toward the sea as the UN Security Council met in New York over the country's recent firing of a missile over Japan for the first time in five years.