By John Ikani
North Korea has passed a law which enshrines the right to use pre-emptive nuclear strikes and declaring its status as a nuclear-armed state “irreversible.”
It comes as the leader accused America of pushing an agenda aimed at weakening the North’s defences and eventually “collapsing” his government.
North Korea has already declared itself a nuclear weapons state in its constitution, but the new law goes beyond that to outline when nuclear weapons can be used, including to respond to an attack, or stop an invasion.
The law which supreme leader Kim Jong Un says is “irreversible,” will allow North Korea to carry out a preventive nuclear strike “automatically” and “immediately to destroy hostile forces,” when a foreign country poses an imminent threat to Pyongyang.
Kim vowed that the country would “never give up” its nuclear weapons and said there could be no negotiations on denuclearization as he hailed the passage of the law.
Despite crippling sanctions, Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.
It has continued to advance its military capability – in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions – to threaten its neighbours and potentially even bring the US mainland within striking range.
Kim carried long-range launches and nuclear tests in 2019 following two headline-grabbing but inconclusive summits with then US president Donald Trump.
Nuclear weapons represent the “dignity, body, and absolute power of the state,” Kim said as he welcomed the decision by the country’s rubber-stamp parliament — the Supreme People’s Assembly — to pass the new law in a unanimous vote.
“The adoption of laws and regulations related to the national nuclear force policy is a remarkable event as it’s our declaration that we legally acquired war deterrence as a means of national defense,” Kim said.
“As long as nuclear weapons exist on Earth, and imperialism and the anti-North Korean maneuvers of the US and its followers remain, our road to strengthening our nuclear force will never end.”
The new law also bans the sharing of nuclear technology with other countries.
