South Korea’s defense minister said Wednesday that boosting the country’s military strength is “inevitable” under the current situation, indicating that North Korea’s recent belligerence will intensify the arms race and tension on the peninsula.

Seoul and Washington have been stepping up warnings against North Korea and its purported plan for another nuclear test. Last week, the allies wrapped up joint military drills, which also included preemptive strikes against Pyongyang’s leadership.

Minister Han Min-koo, speaking at a defense forum in Seoul, said that there has been criticism from the people that South Korea lacks proper countermeasures against the North and is depending on the U.S.

“There is widespread anxiety toward the North’s asymmetrical threat like the ballistic missile and nuclear programs, as well as distrust over South Korea’s strengthening of its military capacity,” Han said.

Pyongyang followed up on its Jan. 6 nuclear test with three intermediate-range ballistic missile launches last month, upon which the U.N. Security Council began to prepare a joint statement against. Its leader Kim Jong-un has also ordered his troops to conduct a nuclear warhead test in the near future, with some speculating that further provocations -- whether in the form of a nuclear test or ballistic missile launch -- may take place around the communist state’s ruling party congress on Friday.

“The military will acquire sufficient core capacity to conduct warfare on our own after the wartime operational control (of South Korean armed forces) is transferred. ...We (the military) plans to acquire an asymmetrical capabilities of its own in case of conflicts with neighboring countries,” Han said. Operational control is expected to be turned over to Seoul in around the mid-2020s.

The minister also stressed the need for a “paradigm shift” to prioritize acquiring countermeasures against the North. 

A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity said,“(Han’s  comments) mean that our (military’s) primary goal should be to have the capacity to respond to a threat that is becoming reality.”

The minister also said that the North’s defense budget is estimated to be around $10 billion, which is about 10 times more than the amount it had declared. South Korea’s defense budget for 2016 is 40.1 billion won ($34.6 billion).

Han’s comments were in line with President Park Geun-hye, who warned last week that the hermit kingdom would be condemning itself to doom with another nuclear test.

Washington’s words against the North has also been increasingly resolute.

Daniel Russel, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state.

Dismissing the North’s recent suggestion to abandon its nuclear program if U.S. forces pull out of the peninsula, Russel said that the U.S. will no longer “repeat mistakes” of taking North Korea’s promises at face value and urged meaningful action from Pyongyang toward denuclearization.

Former U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman suggested the need to brace for the sudden fall of Kim’s leadership.

Sherman, who was formerly the top aide for U.S. presidential-hopeful Hillary Clinton and remains her key foreign policy brain, said China’s preferred status quo in the Korean Peninsula is “not sustainable,” and that the involved parties should discuss “a sudden collapse of the regime or coup.”