It’s winter in North Korea, and like every other year there are people eating handfuls of grass to keep from starving to death.

And like every other year, the Dear Leader is spending mountains of money on weapons instead of feeding his people, making noise, noise, noise that fewer and fewer people are paying attention to

This is the best summary I could come up with:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to launch three additional military spy satellites, produce more nuclear materials and introduce attack drones in 2024, as he called for “overwhelming” war readiness to cope with U.S.-led confrontational moves, state media reported Sunday.

Kim’s comments, made during a key ruling Workers’ Party meeting to set state goals for next year, suggest he’ll intensify a run of weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November.

Observers say Kim believes a boosted nuclear capability would give him another chance for high-stakes diplomacy with the U.S. to win sanctions relief if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House.

He underscored the need to establish “a reliable foundation” to build more nuclear weapons, an apparent reference to facilities producing fissile materials like weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

Yang Uk, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that he believes North Korea hasn’t yet obtained functioning ICBMs that can launch nuclear strikes on the continental U.S.

The U.N. atomic agency and foreign experts recently said North Korea appears to have started operating a light-water reactor at its main nuclear complex in a possible attempt to secure a new source for weapons-grade plutonium.

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