North Korea enacted a new law that makes its nuclear policy “irreversible” and allows preventive strikes to be carried out in the event of threats to its security, international media report.
The new law, approved the day before during a session of the Supreme National Assembly, contemplates an “immediate” nuclear attack if the national command center or its nuclear arsenal is in danger of an attack, according to details published by the agency of KCNA news, quoted by EFE.
In addition, it allows the creation of “nuclear forces” that “will be composed of different types of nuclear warheads, vectors (carriers), the command, control system and all the personnel, and the equipment and facilities for the operation and update of the system”, according to the news dispatch.
“We will never give up nuclear weapons and there is absolutely no denuclearization or negotiations or exchange currencies to negotiate in the process,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in a speech before the country’s legislature, which is holding this week a series of sessions.
During his speech, published by the state newspaper rodongKim said that nuclear weapons are “the great pride of the Korean people” and that as long as there are atomic weapons and maneuvers that threaten the security of his country, “our path to strengthening our nuclear force will not end.”
“We will never give up”: North Korea passed law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state https://t.co/fgSHOKLoEg
– Week Magazine (@RevistaSemana) September 9, 2022
The president accused the United States of trying to overthrow his government by pressuring it through sanctions to abandon its development and nuclear weapons, and described this approach by Washington as “an error of judgment and calculation” that will not have an effect “in hundreds of years”, points out the Spanish media.
Pyongyang’s nuclear policy reform is “a legal demand of the current situation” that will serve as a guarantee to strengthen the position as a nuclear state of the North, Kim said, adding that it is “of great importance to draw a line so that we can no longer negotiate on our nuclear policy.”
The North Korean leader said that for there to be any change in this policy, a change in the political and military situation on the Korean peninsula and globally would first be necessary, he adds. EFE.
North Korea unveiled the new path of its nuclear policy on the day of the 74th anniversary of its founding, which it celebrated the night before with massive celebrations on an unusual scale for an uneventful year, which, according to the agency, would seek to send a message of unity in the face of natural disasters and the pandemic.
Kim also hinted at the direction he is seeking for the North’s foreign relations, which will seek to “further expand and develop friendly and cooperative relations with neighboring countries” and extend its diplomacy.
The North Korean leader, who says he is observing “the transition from the unipolar world to a multipolar world” outside of the “colonization” of the United States, spoke of promoting his diplomacy “to develop multifaceted exchanges and cooperation with capitalist countries that respect and treat our country with friendship,” he says. EFE.
North Korea has kept its borders closed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and has rejected the most recent offers of dialogue with Seoul and Washington. Last year, it approved a five-year weapons modernization plan that has seen some twenty projectile launches this year and that seems to be behind the preparations for a new nuclear test.
If it takes place, as can be seen from the new law and Kim’s latest statements, it would be Pyongyang’s first atomic test in five years, which, according to South Korean and US intelligence, has been ready for months to be carried out.
EFE / OnCuba
