North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly inspected a facility linked to nuclear material production and urged the country to develop its atomic capabilities, according to state media reports on Wednesday.
North Korea's state news agency reported that Kim visited a nuclear material production facility and the Nuclear Weapons Institute.
During the visit, Kim was quoted as saying North Korea had achieved "amazing" results in nuclear material production last year, emphasizing the need to surpass this year's target in order to strengthen "the nuclear shield of the country."
He also emphasized that increasing the country's nuclear deterrence is "our unwavering national duty" to counter the growing challenges posed by "adversarial powers," seemingly referring to the United States and South Korea.
Although the exact location of the facilities was not revealed, photos of Kim's visit indicate that he probably toured a uranium enrichment facility, a site he had visited earlier in September.
That visit marked North Korea's first public disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility since 2010, when Pyongyang revealed the site to visiting American scholars at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
During the September visit, Kim stressed the need to significantly expand the number of centrifuges to produce nuclear weapons at a rate of exponential increase.
Experts say Kim's current visit suggests a continuation of North Korea's expansion of its nuclear arsenal and see it as a strategic move to gain relief from US sanctions and obtain political concessions from Washington.
US President Donald Trump has expressed his readiness to engage in further talks with Kim in an effort to reinvigorate diplomatic efforts. In a recent Fox News interview, Trump described Kim as "a smart guy" and "not a religious zealot." When asked if he plans to make contact with Kim again, Trump responded, "I will, yeah."
Donald Trump met with Kim Jong-un on three occasions during his initial term, following a period of heightened tensions. Nevertheless, the diplomatic initiatives between 2018 and 2019 ultimately broke down due to disagreements regarding the US-imposed sanctions against Pyongyang.
North Korea has not yet directly responded to Trump's overtures and instead maintains a belligerent stance towards the US, coupled with its continued weapons testing activities.
Pundits recommend that Kim might consider negotiations with Trump in the future, observing that he probably feels he now possesses more negotiating power due to his extended nuclear capability and enhanced military cooperation with Russia.
On Sunday, North Korea announced the testing of a new cruise missile system, its third known armament demonstration this year, and promised "the toughest" response to what it cautioned as an escalation of US-South Korean military maneuvers.
North Korea perceives the joint US-South Korean military exercises as practice for invasion, despite Washington and Seoul emphasizing that the drills are defensive in nature.
In recent years, the US and South Korea have stepped up their military drills as a response to North Korea's progressing nuclear programme. North Korea's nuclear weapons can be created by utilising either highly enriched uranium or plutonium.
In 2018, a high-ranking South Korean official told the parliament that North Korea had between 20 to 60 nuclear weapons, but some experts believe the number might now be over 100.
Estimates of the annual number of nuclear bombs that Pyongyang can manufacture range from six to 18.