SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country is now implementing a nuclear force construction policy to increase its number of nuclear weapons “exponentially,” state media reported Tuesday. Kim also said North Korea is facing a “grave threat” from what it sees as a U.S.-led nuclear-based military bloc in the region. South Korea will also hold a defense ministerial meeting with the member states of the United Nations Command (UNC) on Tuesday. Last month, Germany became the latest to join the UNC in South Korea that helps police the heavily fortified border with North Korea and has committed to defend the South in the event of a war. North Korea has criticized the UNC as an “illegal war organization” and Germany’s entry into the U.S.-led U.N. border monitoring force as raising tensions.

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Persons: Kim Jong Un, Kim, ”, Cho Chang, rae Organizations: KCNA, U.S . State Department, United Nations Command, UNC, U.S . Locations: SEOUL, South Korea, North, United States, North Korea, U.S, South, Seoul, Germany