North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un presided over a military commission meeting on Thursday focused on how to improve the “quality and quantity” of the country’s illicit nuclear weapons arsenal.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of the few legal sources of news for North Koreans in the country, the military meeting granted Kim the opportunity to emphasize to his top brass the importance of “bringing about a qualitative change in strengthening the combat readiness of the army units at all levels.” Kim has repeatedly called for his government to produce a larger number of more powerful nuclear weapons, claiming them necessary to prevent an invasion by the United States and South Korea.
American intelligence officials believe that communist North Korea is in possession of about 50 nuclear weapons and has enough fissile material to build up to another 90 nuclear bombs as of 2025. The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly expressed alarm at North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, which it has noted is ongoing despite zero oversight by international observers and nuclear experts.
The North Korean regime made its latest affirmations on expanding its nuclear capabilities during a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling communist Workers’ Party. There, according to KCNA, senior military leaders discussed “upgrading the technical infrastructure of combat systems, bolstering up the nuclear force both in quality and quantity, and pushing ahead with the plan for standardizing, specializing, and modernizing military bases in a far-sighted way.”
The leaders also discussed improving training for soldiers and raising the quality of both military training camps and education.
“Saying that the prestige, honour, and destiny of socialist Korea are unthinkable apart from the powerful defence capabilities,” KCNA shared, “Comrade Kim Jong-Un stated that the security and peace of the country and the people cannot be defended with the will alone and that only when we build the strong army and control all and contain threats with its powerful strength, can we achieve the true peace.”
The state media report did not disclose any details of the plans to improve military training, performance, or how to expand the nuclear arsenal.
Kim has repeatedly declared the rapid production of high volumes of nuclear material for military use to be a priority of his dictatorship. Most recently, during a Workers’ Party plenary meeting in June, Kim insisted that North Korea’s nuclear abilities were necessary to fight “America first” ideology and “Zionism.”
“Today, the world is witnessing rampant ultra-nationalism of modern version such as ‘America First’ idea, Zionism, Ukrainian Neo-Nazism, and Japanese militarism,” Kim told his henchmen, stating that the situation required North Korea to “thoroughly exercise the position of a nuclear weapons state.”
According to state media, Kim used that meeting to again declare that the country must “steadily expand and strengthen the nuclear forces, the core of the military sovereignty of the DPRK [North Korea], and the pivot of implementing the strategy for deterring or fighting a war.”
Kim’s repeated calls to grow his country’s nuclear arsenal have alarmed international observers. In May, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi warned that North Korea had made a “a very serious increase in the area of nuclear weapons production, which is estimated at a few dozen warheads.” Grossi, visiting South Korea at the time, noted that the IAEA did not have concrete information about the nuclear program as Pyongyang did not allow U.N. inspectors into the country, but satellite images gave the impression to experts that high volumes of fissile material were being produced.
Grossi had similarly warned in April 2025 that North Korea’s nuclear material production was “off the charts” and should be a global concern.
“It has spawned exponentially,” he observed. “The program is no longer, you know, the complex at Yongbyon. It’s Kangson. It’s other places also in the country. It’s a light water reactor. It’s a second and perhaps a third enrichment facility being built at the moment. It’s a reprocessing campaign, which is ongoing as we speak. And there’s, you know, a nuclear arsenal that exists.”
“I mean, you cannot have a country like this, which is completely off the charts with this nuclear arsenal,” he lamented. “With such a big program, nuclear program, with all these facilities, without us having any clue of any safety or security measure which is being applied to it.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.