At the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivered a message that was at once defiant and conditional — vowing to accelerate the expansion of his country’s nuclear arsenal while leaving the door ajar for renewed diplomacy with Washington. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim declared that North Korea would “redouble efforts to increase the number of nuclear weapons and expand the means and scope of their deployment.” He described the nation’s nuclear force as a “reliable guarantee” of its security and development, underscoring Pyongyang’s conviction that its strategic arsenal is the ultimate safeguard of the regime's survival. Kim outlined an ambitious military modernization blueprint for the new five-year plan, including more advanced land- and submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile systems, artificial intelligence-enabled unmanned strike platforms, anti-satellite capabilities, powerful electronic warfare systems designed to paralyze enemy command structures and more sophisticated recon