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North Korea's Kim Urges Improved Military Capabilities for War

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
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North Korea's Kim Urges Improved Military Capabilities for War

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the country's military to improve capabilities for fighting a war in a speech last week, state media KCNA said on Monday, after Pyongyang dispatched thousands of troops to Russia.
Kim delivered the speech to a conference of battalion commanders and political instructors held in Pyongyang on Friday, during which he called for building political and military strength and fighting efficiency to ensure that the armed forces can cope with a war, reported Reuters.
Threats from the United States and its allies including South Korea and their military confrontation with North Korea have brought tension to "the worst phase in history," he said, calling the Korean peninsula "the world's biggest hotspot."
"He ardently called upon all the participants to go all out for bringing about substantial and fundamental improvement in improving their capabilities for fighting an actual war," KCNA said.
The report came amid international criticism over rapidly developing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Washington, Seoul and Kyiv have said there are more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia to support its war against Ukraine, and some of them have engaged in combat in Kursk, near the Ukraine border.
KCNA said a workshop was given for military officers over the weekend as part of the conference, which was aimed at strengthening the battalions, bolstering their fighting efficiency and "rounding off war preparations as required by the prevailing situation and modern warfare."
In a separate dispatch, KCNA said a Russian delegation led by National Resources and Ecology Minister Alexander Kozlov arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday for trade and economy talks.
Last week, Kim guided a test of suicide drones and ordered their mass production, citing an intensifying competition for adopting such weapons around the world.
US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba condemned North Korea and Russia's decision to "dangerously expand" the Ukraine war as they held a summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Peru.
Biden's administration has allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia, sources told Reuters, marking a significant policy reversal
and a response to Russia's deployment of North Korean ground troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that North Korean troops had suffered casualties in combat with his country's forces, and the first battles between them " open a new page in instability."

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Putin Issues Warning to US with New Nuclear Doctrine

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
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Putin Issues Warning to US with New Nuclear Doctrine

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Yevgeny Balitsky (not pictured), the Russian-installed Governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 18 November 2024. (EPA/ Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the United States on Tuesday, lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike just days after the administration of Joe Biden reportedly allowed Ukraine to fire American missiles deep into Russia.

The updated doctrine, formally known as "The basics of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence", outlines the threats that would make Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, contemplate using such weapons.

Russia would consider a nuclear strike if it, or its ally Belarus, faced aggression "with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity", the new doctrine said.

The previous doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree, said Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatened the existence of the state.

Other innovations included considering any conventional assault on Russia by a non-nuclear power supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack. Any mass aerospace attack with aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft that crossed Russia's borders could also trigger a nuclear response.

"Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies on the part of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack," the doctrine said.

"Aggression of any state from a military coalition (bloc, union) against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered as aggression by the coalition (bloc, union) as a whole."

The Kremlin said Russia considered nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and that the aim of the updated text was to make absolutely clear to potential enemies that the inevitability of retaliation should they attack Russia.

Together, Russia and the US control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin is Russia's primary decision-maker on the use of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

WAR

Weeks before the November US presidential elections, Putin ordered changes to the nuclear doctrine.

Those changes have now been formally approved by Putin. Analysts said at the time that the change to the doctrine was an attempt by Putin to draw a red line for the West.

The war in Ukraine, which entered its 1,000th day on Tuesday, has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - considered to be the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war.

The reported decision on the use of US missiles by the outgoing Biden administration - though yet to be confirmed by Washington - has escalated tensions over Ukraine. Washington says Russia's deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia is an escalation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on reports that Kyiv may use US-made ATACMS missiles in support of Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's Kursk region, said on Tuesday that the Russian military was monitoring the situation very closely.

Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean "the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.

"Nuclear deterrence is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies," Peskov said.

The United States in 2022 was so concerned about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia that it warned Putin over the consequences of using such weapons, according to Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns.

Russia has begun mass production of mobile bomb shelters that can protect against a variety of man-made threats and natural disasters including radiation and shockwaves.