“We must always be ready to fire our nuclear warheads at any time”, Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s official KCNA news agency.
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He also warned that the situation in the Korean peninsula was so bad that North Korea had to change military strategy, brandishing the threat of preemptive attacks.
Kim issued the nuclear threat while guiding the test-firing of a new large-caliber multiple launch rocket system, in a likely reference to six short-range projectiles that Seoul says North Korea fired on Thursday.
The country’s defence ministry says the North fired several rockets up to 90 miles into the sea on Thursday.
A fourth nuclear test was conducted by the North in January and long-range rocket was used to put a satellite into orbit last month.
In another development that will anger the North, South Korean and US officials were set to begin formal talks Friday on deploying a sophisticated USA missile defense system in South Korea.
Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North project, which monitors North Korea, said an image from February 21 showed an unusual convoy of trucks near the vertical engine test stand.
The EU first imposed sanctions on North Korea in late 2006.
At the United Nations, Russia’s ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, asked about the North’s firing of short-range projectiles, said, “It means that they’re not drawing the proper conclusions yet”.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies stated in a 2015 report that with continued North Korean nuclear production, “The stockpile increases from a current low level of 10 weapons to 20 weapons by 2020”.
China called for calm and restraint on Friday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his military to be ready to use its atomic weapons at any time.
The 28-nation bloc said it was adding 16 North Korean individuals and 12 entities to the sanctions blacklist which counts some 60 individuals and groups who were hit with travel bans and asset freezes after previous tests.
“The global community, speaking with one voice, has sent Pyongyang a simple message: North Korea must abandon these risky programs and choose a better path for its people”, Obama said.
In recent weeks, Chinese officials have pushed for a “parallel track approach” of simultaneously discussing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and efforts to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, echoing a long-standing demand by North Korea.
But Pyongyang is banned from such launches under UN Security Council resolutions as it has been accused of using them as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Seoul government on Friday slammed the North’s stepped-up attacks against President Park and said they could be perceived as “verbal terrorism”.
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A US Defense Department spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said, responding to the report: “We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its worldwide obligations and commitments”.
