SEOUL – North Korea has adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, its state media reported on Thursday, as the country’s leader pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called the United States’ “provocations”.
The North’s rubber-stamp Parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, unanimously adopted at a two-day meeting which ended on Wednesday the revision to the Constitution.
It stipulates that North Korea “develops highly nuclear weapons to ensure” its right to existence and to deter war, state media Korean Central News Agency said.
“The DPRK’s nuclear force building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state (and) no one is allowed to flout with anything,” leader Kim Jong Un said, addressing Parliament.
DPRK, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is the country’s official name.
He called for “exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons, diversifying nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services”, saying the US has gone to extremes in its military provocations with drills and the deployment of strategic assets in the region.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said the revised Constitution showed Pyongyang’s “strong will” not to abandon its nuclear programme.
“We once again stress that North Korea will face an end of its regime if it uses nuclear weapons,” it warned in a statement.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said: “North Korea’s nuclear and missile development poses threats to peace and the safety of our country and the international community, and can never be tolerated.”
The amendment comes a year after North Korea officially enshrined in law the right to use pre-emptive nuclear strikes to protect itself, a move Mr Kim said would make its nuclear status “irreversible”.
Mr Kim urged officials to “further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the US and the West’s strategy for hegemony”, denouncing trilateral cooperation between the US, South Korea and Japan as the “Asian version (of) Nato”.
“This is the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity,” he said.
Mr Kim returned home last week from a rare trip to Russia, during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to boost military cooperation.
US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Pyongyang could be seeking technological help for its nuclear and missile programmes, while Moscow tries to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for the war in Ukraine.
Analysts said the North’s amendment of the Constitution signals further acceleration of its push for nuclear weapons development, and will likely be followed by expanded military cooperation with Moscow given Mr Kim’s recent Russia visit.
“The new Cold War in the North-east Asia region and military tensions on the Korean peninsula will intensify,” said Professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned Pyongyang against using nuclear weapons as Seoul put on its first large-scale military parade in a decade, with weapons ranging from ballistic missiles to tanks rolling through Seoul in a show of force.
The announcement by Parliament also comes after North Korean state media said on Wednesday that Pyongyang had decided to expel Private Travis King, the US soldier who ran into North Korea in July.
The US said he is now in American custody and heading home after being expelled to China.
In his speech, Mr Kim said ensuring a major revamp of the country’s economy was “the most pressing task for the government”, and urged the agricultural sector to work harder to promote the people’s well-being.
The North has suffered serious food shortages in recent decades, including famine in the 1990s, often as a result of natural disasters.
International experts have warned that border closures during the Covid-19 pandemic worsened food security. REUTERS
