Kim Repeatedly Signals North Korea Could 'Preemptively' Use Nuclear Weapons

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un suggested multiple times this week that his government could "preemptively" use nuclear weapons in response to threats, state media revealed Saturday.

Korean Central News Agency reported that at some point after a major military parade in Pyongyang on Monday, Kim met with the commanding officers of the Korean People's Army at the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee building "to encourage them."

According to the state news agency, the nation's leader noted that "in the present world, where a force clashes with the other fiercely and one can preserve one's dignity, rights, and interests only when one gets stronger, the tremendous offensive power, the overwhelming military muscle that no force in the world can provoke, is the lifeline guaranteeing the security of our country and people and the future of posterity."

Expressing the committee's "firm will to surely maintain the absolute superiority of the revolutionary armed forces and constantly develop them to preemptively and thoroughly contain and frustrate all dangerous attempts and threatening moves, including ever-escalating nuclear threats from hostile forces, if necessary, he stressed the need for the commanding officers to boldly open up a new stage of development of the revolutionary armed forces, steadfastly adhering to the army-building orientation and general line of the party," KCNA continued.