North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the security environment on the Korean Peninsula required a “rapid expansion” of his country’s nuclear arsenal, calling ongoing U.S.–South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war,” state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. Kim made the remarks on Monday while inspecting the Choe Hyon, a new 5,000-ton destroyer that North Korea is outfitting with nuclear-capable weaponry. He told naval commanders the ship would be integral to making the navy a “reliable force” in the country’s nuclear posture and directed officials to accelerate performance tests scheduled for October. The comments came as South Korea and the United States began their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, an 11-day exercise mobilising roughly 21,000 South Korean personnel and a similar number of U.S. troops for computer-simulated command operations and live-fire field training. Seoul and Washington describe the drills as defensive; Pyongyang regularly denounces them as invasion rehearsals. Kim’s warning follows South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s recent offer to resume dialogue and restore a 2018 military pact aimed at easing border tensions. U.S. President Donald Trump and Lee are expected to discuss North Korea’s weapons programme at a forthcoming summit in Washington, underscoring that Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions remain a central challenge for regional security.