Nuke forever. This is how the North Korean regime is defined, which has just enacted a law that makes its nuclear policy “irreversible”, rules out any negotiations on denuclearization and enshrines its right to carry out preventive attacks if its government or atomic arsenal fails. are threatened by a foreign power.
The new law was approved this Thursday during the second plenary session that the Supreme National Assembly is holding this week, according to the state agency KCNA. The legislation replaces a 2013 law that first described North Korea as a nuclear state and expands its powers.
The regulation contemplates several situations for the use of weapons of mass destruction, such as the “immediate” response to a conventional attack against its state leaders -Kim Jong Un included-, if its nuclear arsenal is in danger or to prevent the “expansion or prolongation of a conflict.
“In a nutshell, (the law picks up) some really vague and ambiguous circumstances in which North Korea now says it could use nuclear weapons,” tweeted Chad O’Carroll, founder of the specialized portal NK News.
The text codifies a broader nuclear doctrine advanced by Kim in April. In a speech delivered at the time, the dictator stressed that the essential mission of his atomic arsenal is to act as a deterrent to avoid a war scenario, but he did not rule out its use as an offensive element if the “fundamental interests of our State” are attacked.
In his last speech before the legislative body, the heir to the Kim saga stressed that they will “never” renounce nuclear weapons or negotiate their denuclearization. The reform of Pyongyang’s nuclear policy, he said, 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”, adding that this drift is of “great importance to draw a line for that we can no longer negotiate on our nuclear policy.”
The leader also accused the United States of trying to overthrow his regime through sanctions so that it abandons its development and its nuclear weapons, and described Washington’s action as “an error of judgment and calculation” that will have no effect “or in hundreds of years.”
The North Korean regime has intensified its warnings against Washington and Seoul since the election in March of the new South Korean president, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol. During his campaign, the then-candidate promised to take a tougher line toward Pyongyang than his predecessor in office, liberal Moon Jae In, and even said he would support a preemptive strike to prevent North Korean aggression.
After his negotiations with the US stalled, Kim approved a five-year weapons modernization plan last year. As a result, the country has already carried out twenty missile launch tests so far this year and everything indicates that it has been preparing a new nuclear test for months, which would be the first in the last five years.
Since arriving at the White House, the Joe Biden administration has offered Kim to resume talks without preconditions. For his part, Yoon assured that his country is willing to offer great economic aid in exchange for Pyongyang beginning to dismantle his arsenal.
For now, North Korea has rejected these proposals, and ensures that the US and its allies maintain “hostile policies” towards them such as sanctions and military exercises in their environment that they interpret as a rehearsal for a possible invasion of their territory.
