PYONGYANG (dpa-AFX) - U.S. Forces Korea's commander says that North Korea is continuing to develop its weapons program while growing more isolated.
Gen. Xavier T. Brunson said at a Senate Armed Services Committee posture hearing in Washington that in 2024, North Korea launched 47 ballistic missiles while focusing on advancing its cruise missile and hypersonic glide vehicle research and development programs.
'In the coming year, we expect [North Korea] to further develop hypersonic and multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicle capabilities to complete [their government's] goals,' Gen. Brunson testified.
He also said North Korea is continuing to build its nuclear weapons program and that the country boasts a 1.3-million-man military force that is being equipped, modernized and augmented by Russia.
Many of those munitions and troops have been exported to Russia over the past year and a half, which demonstrates North Korea's ability to provide external support to other countries while advancing domestic capabilities at home, Brunson added.
According to him, North Korea also poses an increasingly sophisticated cyberthreat, as it recently stole approximately $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency.
Additionally, Brunson said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's leadership has shifted from a focus on the reunification of the Korean peninsula to declaring a position of sovereignty.
'This change is evidenced by the hardening of [North Korea's] southern border, the rejection of reunification discussions, and the destruction of unification monuments and buildings'.
Brunson said he doesn't believe most North Koreans are aware of the situation due to the government's strict control on outside communications.
He warned that it would be unwise to reduce the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula in the face of North Korea continuing to develop its conventional and nuclear weapons programs.
Reducing the force would be problematic, Brunson told lawmakers, noting that what U.S. Forces Korea provides 'is the potential to impose cost in the East Sea to Russia, the potential to impose cost in the West Sea to China, and to continue to deter against North Korea as it currently stands.'
The top General said his focus now is on the capabilities necessary to prepare for, deter and then prevail in conflict.
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