North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has promised to take decisive action and “crush” any “hostile” foreign power, just days after saying Pyongyang would advance its own atomic arsenal “at the fastest possible speed.”
Pyongyang has carried out a series of weapons tests this year, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), its first such launch since 2017 following a self-imposed moratorium on major arms tests. Those moves coincided not only with the Joe Biden presidency in Washington, but a change in leadership in Seoul more recently, with South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol taking a much harder line against the north than the prior head of state.