At the end of the ruling party's annual congress and after a year of intensified weapons tests, North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un called for a massive expansion of the country's nuclear weapons.
In a report, state news agency KCNA said on Sunday, Kim called for an "exponential" expansion of the country's nuclear arsenal.
Accordingly, North Korea needs the "mass production of tactical nuclear weapons" and the development of a system for ICBMs, "whose main task is a rapid nuclear counter-strike".
The report is the "main orientation" of the nuclear and defense strategy for 2023, it said. According to KCNA, the reason for the upgrade is the hostility of the United States and South Korea Capacities are constantly exhausted, and the communist leadership in Pyongyang keeps threatening a military escalation in the region.
This year, North Korea has conducted an unprecedented number of weapons tests, including the November launch of its most advanced ICBM.
According to South Korean sources, Pyongyang fired short- and medium-range ballistic missiles on Saturday and Sunday.
KCNA reported Sunday the missile launches were a "test of super-large missile launchers." In a separate KCNA report, Kim said the weapons would put South Korea "as a whole within range" and could carry a "tactical nuclear warhead."
The South Korean Defense Ministry in Seoul described the recent threats from North Korea as "provocative rhetoric seriously damaging to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula".
It called on Pyongyang to immediately abandon its nuclear programs.
"We urge that should North Korea use nuclear weapons, it would be the end of Kim Jong-un's regime," the ministry said.
The United States and South Korea have been warning for months that North Korea could prepare for its seventh nuclear test.
Kim has announced plans to make his country the "world's most powerful nuclear power".
The two Korean states have not signed a peace treaty since the Korean War in the 1950s.