North Korea has passed a law declaring its readiness to launch preventive nuclear strikes, including in the face of conventional attacks, state media reported yesterday.
The move effectively eliminates the possibility of denuclearization talks, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un saying that the country’s status as a nuclear state was now “irreversible.”
The announcement came at a time of heightened tension between North and South Korea, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of COVID-19 in its territory and conducting a record number of weapons tests this year.
Photo: Reuters
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 official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The law specifically states North Korea can use nuclear weapons “in case of a nuclear or nonnuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organization of the state’s nuclear forces,” among other situations, the report said.
“The status of our country as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible,” the report quoted Kim as saying.
The law “publicly justifies Pyongyang’s use of its nuclear power” in the event of any military clash, said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher in the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute.
“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.
Kim in July said his country was “ready to mobilize” its nuclear capability in any war with the US and South Korea.
He reiterated that Pyongyang would never give up the nuclear weapons it needed to counter hostilities from Washington, claiming the US 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 denuclearization and no negotiation for it,” Kim told North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, KCNA reported.
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.
US and South Korean officials have repeatedly warned that North Korea 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 said.
Seoul last month offered Pyongyang an “audacious” aid plan that would include food, energy and infrastructure help in return for the North abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
However, Pyongyang ridiculed the offer, calling it the “height of absurdity” and a deal the North would never accept.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said his administration had no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent.
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