North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to maintain the country's status as a nuclear weapons state, official media reported Tuesday.
Kim made the declaration in a policy speech delivered Monday during a session of the Supreme People's Assembly, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. North Korea proclaimed its status as a nuclear power in 2012.
He said South Korea has been designated as the most hostile nation. With the United States in mind, Kim said Pyongyang is ready to fight hostile nations as well as to coexist with them.
During a key congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in February, Kim underlined the importance of arming the navy with nuclear weapons and pledged to increase the country's nuclear arsenal.
On March 14, he observed a strike drill involving a dozen 600-millimeter-caliber multiple rocket launchers.
Kim warned that they would be used "immediately" for a "massive, destructive strike" if deterrents "do not prevent foreign forces from launching an armed provocation or invading our state to jeopardize the security of its sovereignty."
