The text provides that the atomic weapon can be used, including in the face of conventional attacks.
Le Monde with AFP
Not content with developing its nuclear capacities, North Korea hardens its doctrine concerning their job. The country’s state media announced, Friday, September 9, that the country had adopted a law declaring that it is ready to carry out preventive atomic strikes, including in the face of conventional attacks. The text will allow the North Korean regime to trigger a preventive nuclear strike “automatically” and “immediately to destroy hostile forces”, if a foreign power were to threaten Pyongyang, according to the official news agency KCNA.
This decision eliminates the possibility of denuclearization talks, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, having declared that the nuclear status of his country was now “irreversible”. “It is totally out of the question to give up nuclear weapons, and there cannot be denuclearization or negotiation,” he said in a speech on Thursday before the North Korean parliament, according to Kcna.
This new text testifies to Kim Jong-Un confidence in the nuclear and military capacities of his country, especially in its intercontinental ballistic missiles that can strike the United States, told the France-Presse (AFP ) Cheong Seong-Chang, from the Center for North Korean Studies to the Sejong Institute. As a dictator, “Kim Jong-un does not need laws to launch a nuclear strike”, according to him, but the new doctrine is used to “justify its use of nuclear weapons in the event of an emergency, by disclosing by advance the principles of use of nuclear in the country and abroad “.
intercontinental ballistic missile
In July, Kim Jong-un said that his country was “ready to deploy” its nuclear deterrence in the event of military confrontation with the United States and South Korea. North Korea has carried out a record series of weapons tests this year, in particular by drawing an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time since 2017.
The unresolved question of the reduction of sanctions, and what Pyongyang would be ready to give in in return, has arrested negotiations between the United States and North Korea since 2019. For Yang Moo-Jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies, the new text clearly reaffirms the position of Pyongyang, who believes that negotiations on denuclearization are no longer on the program. “Pyongyang will probably establish closer links with China and Russia against Washington, and (…) conduct a seventh nuclear test in the near future,” he said to AFP.
This announcement occurs in a context of tense intercreen relationships. Pyongyang notably accused Seoul of being responsible for the recent Epidemia of COVID-19 on its territory. Last month, the South proposed a large aid plan in the north, including food, energy, but also aid for the modernization of infrastructure, in exchange for denuclearization. North Korea has rejected the offer, calling it as a “summit of absurdity”. At the end of August, the United States and South Korea had conducted their most important joint military exercises since 2018, faced with the growing nuclear threat.