Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has branded the ongoing military drills between South Korea and the U.S. as a threat, saying the Ulchi Freedom Shield shows why his country needs nuclear weapons. As Kim inspected a newly commissioned warship on the day the massive drills began, he conveyed the message that the military exercise must end as a condition for talks. 
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says his nuclear weapons program needs further development in the face of the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills.

Amid the allies’ annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise on Tuesday, North Korea’s state-run media delivered Kim’s message, in which he identified the joint drills as a reason his nuclear program is necessary. 

[Sound bite: Korean Central Television news reader(Korean-English)]
“Comrade Kim Jong-un said, as he had stressed before, the security environment around the nation is getting more serious day by day and the prevailing situation requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearization.”

Kim was inspecting his new five-thousand-ton destroyer, the Choe Hyun, at the Nampo Shipyard the previous day.

[Sound bite: Korean Central Television news reader(Korean-English)]
“Comrade Kim Jong-un said that the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military exercises beginning from today is a clear expression of openly revealing their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational to the DPRK.” 

The remarks came in the wake of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s call for inter-Korean dialogue in his Liberation Day speech last week.

[Sound bite: President Lee Jae Myung (Korean-English/Aug. 15)]
“I would like to make it clear that we respect the current political system in the North and will not pursue ‘reunification by absorption’ in any form. We have no hostile intentions toward the North. I would like to preemptively restore the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement in order to prevent accidental clashes and build military trust between the two sides.”

With Kim specifically targeting joint drills as a threat on the day the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills started, Seoul’s unification ministry said the exercise is defensive in nature. 

Experts say Kim is making it clear that suspending the drills is a key condition for the resumption of long-stalled dialogue as Seoul seeks to revive both inter-Korean and Trump-Kim talks.

Seoul did adjust the Ulchi Freedom Shield, postponing half of its field training drills to next month, but Kim’s sister Yo-jong indicated in a statement last week that it wasn’t enough.  
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.