BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to maintain the country's status as a nuclear weapons state and said South Korea has been designated as the "most hostile" nation, official media reported Tuesday.
Kim made the declaration in a policy speech delivered Monday during a session of the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's top legislature, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. North Korea proclaimed its status as a nuclear power in 2012.
He said North Korea's "defensive nuclear deterrence" is important to national security and economic development, with the current global reality demonstrating that permanently securing nuclear arms was the correct and strategic choice.
Without directly mentioning U.S. President Donald Trump, the North Korean leader accused the United States and its allies of destabilizing the region by deploying strategic assets near the Korean Peninsula.
Kim said in the speech the North is no longer a country under threat and "possesses the power to pose a threat if necessary."
He was quoted by KCNA as saying that whether enemies choose "confrontation or peaceful coexistence," that is their choice, and that Pyongyang is "ready to respond to any choice."
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.
In the address to the assembly, Kim also displayed a hardened stance toward South Korea, having dropped the long-standing policy of seeking a reunification of the two Koreas. He did not mention, though, whether a recent revision to his country's Constitution referred to South Korea as a hostile nation.
In a reference to the traditionally friendly countries of China and Russia, Kim said North Korea will bolster its relations with them in the mid- and long-term.
North Korea, which has been ramping up military cooperation with Russia, dispatched troops to help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, while China remains North Korea's key economic benefactor.
On North Korea's economy, Kim gave a positive assessment, praising the significant progress made over the past five years.
Japan was not mentioned in his policy speech.
On March 14, North Korea fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan, with the projectiles assessed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Kim on the same day observed a strike drill involving a dozen 600-millimeter-caliber multiple rocket launchers that "battered" an "island target" in the sea.
He warned that rocket launchers 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."
