Kim Jong Un, North Korea's State Affairs Commission Chairperson, said, "The enemies should rightly ponder what kind of environment their security environment is approaching," adding, "Whether Korean territory can ever be a safe place is for them to judge for themselves."
On the 5th, the Korean Central News Agency said that Chairperson Kim, at the armed equipment exhibition "Defense Development-2025," which opened the previous day in Pyongyang, said, "In proportion to the U.S. military buildup in the Korean region, our strategic attention to this area has also risen, and accordingly, we have assigned special assets to key targets of interest (on the Korean Peninsula)."
North Korea is showcasing new weapons through an armed equipment exhibition similar to a defense industry expo. Since 2023, it has held an armed equipment exhibition under the name Defense Development for three consecutive years. Before that, in 2021, it held the defense development expo called "Self-Defense-2021."
In a commemorative address, Chairperson Kim said, "Various drills are being carried out to implement in reality and master the perilous scenarios pursuant to the radical evolution of the U.S.-South Korea nuclear alliance and the so-called nuclear operations guidelines, and recently the United States has also taken military buildup measures to expand its military assets in Korea and surrounding areas."
He said, "We are closely watching, in connection with the potential emergence of new threats to national security, the deployment of the United States' strategic strike means and reconnaissance means to the Choson (Korean) Peninsula and surrounding areas and the military hostile acts mobilizing them, and we have also taken clear measures."
He went on to say, "If the United States continues to push ahead with dangerous military buildup acts while blatantly ignoring regional countries' security concerns, such a development will further push us to implement the relevant military-technical measures to eliminate new threats and maintain the balance of power."
At the exhibition, systems appeared including the Hwasong-11ma, presumed to be equipped with a hypersonic warhead on the KN-23 short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), as well as a supersonic cruise missile, an anti-submarine missile, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) Hwasong-18 and Hwasong-19.
Meanwhile, the presidential office on the 5th again urged Chairperson Kim, who made these remarks, to take the path of dialogue and cooperation. The presidential office stated its position that "North Korea should join the path of dialogue and cooperation for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as well as in the international community."