Kim Jong Un declares he is ready to launch ‘preventative’ NUCLEAR strikes and North Korea’s position as a nuclear state is ‘irreversible’
- A new law says North Korea can carry out a preventive nuclear strike ‘automatically’ and ‘immediately to destroy the hostile forces’
- Announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions with South Korea
- Pyongyang blames Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and has worryingly conducted a record number of weapons tests this year
Kim Jong Un had declared he is ready to launch preventive nuclear strikes in a new law passed this week, state media said on Friday.
Such ‘preventative’ strikes could be made even in the face of conventional attacks against the isolated country, the law states.
The move effectively eliminates the possibility of denuclearisation talks, with the dictator saying the country’s status as a nuclear state was now ‘irreversible’.
Kim Jong Un (pictured in a photograph released by North Korean state media on Thursday) had declared he is ready to launch preventive nuclear strikes in a new law passed this week, state media said on Friday
The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension between North and South, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and conducting a record number of weapons tests this year.
The newly enacted law says North Korea can carry out a preventive nuclear strike ‘automatically’ and ‘immediately to destroy the hostile forces’ when a foreign country poses an imminent threat to Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency said.
The law specifically states the North can use nuclear weapons ‘in case of a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organization of the state’s nuclear forces’, among other situations, state media said.
‘The status of our country as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible’, Kim Jong Un said, KCNA reported.
The law ‘publicly justifies Pyongyang’s use of its nuclear power’ in the event of any military clash, Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute told AFP news agency.
As the North’s dictator, ‘Kim Jong Un does not need laws to launch a nuclear strike’, but the new law serves as a way to ‘vindicate Kim’s use of nuclear weapons in case of emergency by disclosing the principles of nuclear use at home and abroad in advance,’ he added.
The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension between North and South, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and conducting a record number of weapons tests this year. Pictured: A weapons test in North Korea is picture in March
Kim in July said his country was ‘ready to mobilise’ its nuclear capability in any war with the United States and the South.
He reiterated that Pyongyang would never give up the nuclear weapons it needed to counter hostilities from Washington, claiming the United States was seeking to ‘collapse’ his regime.
Nuclear talks and diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang have been derailed since 2019 over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.
‘There is absolutely no such thing as giving up nuclear weapons first, and there is no denuclearisation and no negotiation for it,’ Kim said during a speech at North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, KCNA reported.
In his speech, Mr Kim also criticised South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the North’s growing threats, describing them as a ‘dangerous’ military action that raises tensions.
Mr Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict towards the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened.
People watch a television screen showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch at the Seoul Railway Station on August 17, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea
His latest comments underlined the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles programme.
‘The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defence through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time,’ Mr Kim said in the speech published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
‘Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years,’ Mr Kim said.
‘We will never give up our rights to self-defence that preserves our country’s existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now.’
A blitz of North Korean weapons tests since January included the firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.
Washington and South Korean officials have repeatedly warned that the North is preparing to carry out what would be its seventh nuclear test.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the North’s latest announcement clearly reaffirmed Pyongyang’s stance – that nuclear negotiations are no longer on the table.
‘Pyongyang is likely to form closer ties with China and Russia against Washington, and … launch its seventh nuclear test in the near future,’ he told AFP.
Pictured: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un attends an event celebrating the 74th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, in Pyongyang
Mr Kim also addressed domestic issues in his speech, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in November.
He did not specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people.
GAVI, the non-profit that runs the UN-backed Covax distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China.
The organisation said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear.
North Korea rejected previous offers by Covax, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored US and South Korean offers of vaccines and other Covid-19 aid.
Last month, Mr Kim declared victory over Covid-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North’s disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Mr Kim maintain absolute control.
The North Korean report about Mr Kim’s speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018.
Experts say it is highly unlikely North Korea would accept the South’s offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
But Pyongyang ridiculed the offer, calling it the ‘height of absurdity’ and a deal the North would never accept.
South Korea’s hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol said last month that his administration had no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent.
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