As relations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea further deteriorate, some East Asian countries are busy strengthening their militaries. At the United Nations forum on disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday, the US and the DPRK accused each other of posing a nuclear threat. US envoy Robert Wood elaborated on President Donald Trump's top priority: protect the US and its allies against the "growing threat" from the DPRK, for which Washington will use "the full range of capabilities at our disposal".

DPRK diplomat Ju Yong Chol, on his part, said, "as long as the US hostile policy and nuclear threat remains unchallenged, the DPRK will never place its self-defensive nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table or step back an inch from the path it has taken to bolster the national nuclear force". More importantly, DPRK leader Kim Jongun has reportedly instructed the country's Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defense Science to make more solid-fuel rocket engines and rocket warheads.