Kim Jong Un has ordered North Korea’s nuclear weapons to be placed on standby, ratcheting up tensions on the Korean peninsula following a UN Security Council approved tough new sanctions on the country.
The North Korean leader also said his country should turn its military posture to “pre-emptive attack” mode, the official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday.
“The only way for defending the sovereignty of our nation and its right to existence under the present extreme situation is to bolster up nuclear force both in quality and quantity,” the KCNA quoted Mr Kim as saying. The news agency added that he had stressed the need for the country’s nuclear warheads to be “always on standby so as to be fired any moment”.