Did you know Kim Jong Un said he wanted to annihilate America if Washington chose war over peace?

Relations between North Korea and the United States have soured quite a bit since Donald Trump's mini-rapprochement with Pyongyang while he was in office, and the bad blood between the two countries appeared as if it was taken to a new height back in December 2023.

It is well known that North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un harbors a lot of animosity toward the United States and South Korea. However, an end-of-year speech that Kim gave to his commanders surprised the world by being unusually explicit about his desire to destroy both countries.

Back in December 2023, Kim Jong Un asked his military commanders to “thoroughly annihilate” South Korea and the United States if the two allies opt for military confrontation according to a report from North Korean state media. 

On December 31st, Kim met with several of his most important military commanders in Pyongyang where the North Korean leader praised their exploits over the previous year and gave the group a "pep talk".

According to The Pyongyang Times, Kim thanked the assembled commanders for their service and defense of the country before providing an analysis of the security situation North Korea was facing going into the new year, and his assessment wasn't optimistic.

Kim assessed that the country was on the brink of war with the United States and South Korea based on the confrontational moves of the countries, and he explained that there was an urgent need to further safeguard peace and security.

Moreover, the North Korean leader explained the responsibility that each of the commanders had in protecting the country. Kim also said that the destiny of North Korea was in their hands according to The Pyongyang Times. 

The more North Korea’s revolution advanced, according to Kim, the more outside forces like the United States and its allies would work to stop it. But Kim noted it was the job of the army to stop those efforts. 

If the United States or its allies opted for military confrontation and provocation, then Kim said North Korea's army should “deal a deadly blow to thoroughly annihilate” the countries by means of its toughest weapons.

Whether or not Kim actually made these remarks is difficult to know since the story was published secondhand by North Korean state media. However, even if they weren’t, the report can provide some insight into the geopolitical game Kim was playing at the time.

North Korea had been increasing its bellicose rhetoric in months leading up to Kim's speech according to the Associated Press’ Hyung-Jin Kim, who reported that the change in tone from Kim was a response to growing US-South Korean military drills. 

The United States and its allies in the region had conducted a number of military drills on the Korean Peninsula, including Operation Freedom Shield 23 in mid-August 2023 as well as Vigilante Defense in October of the same year. 

In turn, North Korea chose to increase its weapons testing, which included the launch of its first spy satellite in November 2023, as well as test launches of the country’s Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Hyung-Jin Kim noted that experts believed Kim’s increasingly escalatory rhetoric and weapons tests were a political ploy by the North Koreans to raise tensions with the U.S. in order to gain political concessions. 

Kim “likely believes he can use heightened tensions to wrest U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November,” Hyung-Jin Kim explained in his report at the time.

“The Kim regime has closed the political door on denuclearization negotiations but could offer rhetorical restraint and a testing freeze in exchange for sanctions relief,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told NBC News. 

However, there were also clear indications that Kim had little intention of de-escalating the tensions based on the leader's desire to launch even more spy satellites into space and develop drone technology.

NBC News reported that during a year-end meeting of the Korean Workers’ Party, Kim vowed to put three satellites into orbit and develop the country’s attack drone capability in addition to promising to make more nuclear material.