Global Courant
Leader Kim Jong Un says the constitutional change will help North Korea maintain a “clear lead” in deterring threats.
North Korea’s parliament has unanimously decided to enshrine its nuclear program in the country’s constitution.
State news agency KCNA reported on this “crucial agenda item” early on Thursday, explaining that the new constitutional amendment would establish North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear power “as the basic law of the state.”
The news follows a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s legislature. The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, addressed the meeting to support the adoption of the amendment.
Kim called for “accelerating the modernization of nuclear weapons to maintain the definitive edge of strategic deterrence” against perceived threats such as the United States and South Korea.
“This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening national defense capabilities,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
“The (North Korean) nuclear weapons build-up policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one may disregard by any means.”
Just days earlier, North Korean Ambassador Kim Song warned the United Nations General Assembly that his country could be forced into nuclear war by “hostile external threats.”
“The Korean Peninsula is in a hair-trigger situation with an imminent danger of the outbreak of nuclear war,” Ambassador Kim said on Tuesday.
Citing “extremely dangerous” conditions, he added that North Korea “urgently needs to further accelerate the build-up of its self-defense capabilities to defend itself impregnabably.”
The announcement that nuclear weapons will be enshrined in the country’s constitution goes against multiple UN Security Council sanctions aimed at stopping North Korea from using nuclear weapons.
Over the past year, North Korea has escalated the number of weapons tests it conducts, launching a series of ballistic and cruise missiles.
It has also conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, although the last took place in 2017. US officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, have raised alarm about the possibility that a seventh test could be in the offing.
“He will uncork that at a time and place of his choosing, something we will watch very, very carefully,” Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, said in March.
Berrier warned at the time that North Korea has become “much more dangerous” as it expands its arsenal of missiles and nuclear weapons.
According to state news (KCNA via Reuters), leader Kim Jong Un appeared at the Supreme People’s Assembly this week to support the constitutional amendment.
For example, in January 2022, the country announced its first successful test of a hypersonic missile, a weapon that can exceed the speed of sound. In April, it successfully launched its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), an advance over liquid-fueled versions, which are slower to launch and harder to use.
“He continues to pursue greater accuracy and lethality with his missile power,” Berrier said.
But North Korean officials have framed the nuclear buildup as necessary to fend off threats from the U.S., South Korea and Japan, alliance leader Kim Jong Un has likened to an “Asian version of NATO.”
The three countries have regularly held joint military exercises in the Pacific, an act dubbed “nuclear blackmail” by North Korean state media.
Earlier this month, Kim made a rare trip outside his country, visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny spaceport to strengthen ties and inspect Russian military capabilities.
Putin promised to visit North Korea in return and expressed concerns about an arms trade deal between the two countries.
