During a Senate Armed Services Committee posture hearing today in Washington, U.S. Forces Korea's commander testified that North Korea is continuing to develop its weapons program while growing more isolated.
Army Gen. Xavier T. Brunson told the committee that, in 2024, North Korea launched 47 ballistic missiles while focusing on advancing its cruise missile and hypersonic glide vehicle research and development programs.
"In the coming year, we expect [North Korea] to further develop hypersonic and multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicle capabilities to complete [their government's] goals," Brunson testified.
He also said North Korea is continuing to build its nuclear weapons program and that the country boasts a 1.3-million-man military force that is being equipped, modernized and augmented by Russia.
Many of those munitions and troops have been exported to Russia over the past year and a half, which demonstrates North Korea's ability to provide external support to other countries while advancing domestic capabilities at home, Brunson added.
He said North Korea also poses an increasingly sophisticated cyberthreat and recently stole approximately $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency.
Additionally, Brunson said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's leadership has shifted from a focus on the reunification of the Korean peninsula to declaring a position of sovereignty.
"This change is evidenced by the hardening of [North Korea's] southern border, the rejection of reunification discussions, and the destruction of unification monuments and buildings," he said.
When asked whether everyday North Koreans are cognizant of the oppression by the current regime under Kim, Bruson said that — based on recent observances in Ukraine — he doesn't believe so.
"I would fully answer that by looking at the forces [North Korea] sent to Ukraine ... [They are] absolutely, dyed-in-the-wool ideologues who are tied to — and believe in — that regime that exists there," Brunson said, adding he doesn't believe most North Koreans are aware of the situation due to the government's strict control on outside communications.
Brunson said that it would be unwise to reduce the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula in the face of North Korea continuing to develop its conventional and nuclear weapons programs.
Reducing the force would be problematic, Brunson told lawmakers, noting that what U.S. Forces Korea provides "is the potential to impose cost in the East Sea to Russia, the potential to impose cost in the West Sea to China, and to continue to deter against North Korea as it currently stands."
He said his focus is now on the capabilities necessary to prepare for, deter and then prevail in conflict, should it occur.