© KCNA/ReutersNorth Korean Leader Kim Jong Un
Kim gave a speech marking the 76th founding anniversary of his government at the start of this week. He said that a nuclear overhaul is needed to defend the country from "hostile" forces and that North Korea faces "a grave threat" as a result of the "reckless expansion" the United States-led military bloc in the region.
North Korea will "redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat," he stated.
In particular Kim was reacting to a new US-South Korean defense agreement signed in July. The new agreement allows for the integration of US nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to defend the peninsula from the nuclear-armed north if need be.
Pyongyang has been seen as engaged in heightened nuclear saber-rattling over the last year, especially following the US decision to at times park a nuclear submarine at South Korean port. The north has also frequently condemned joint US-South Korean military drills, which it denounces as "invasion rehearsals".
Comment: North Korea was USA's to lose...and did in record time.