North Korea has legally institutionalised the ability to deploy pre-emptive nuclear attacks to safeguard itself in a new legislation that, according to leader Kim Jong Un, renders its nuclear position “irreversible” and prohibits denuclearisation discussions.
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The decision comes after landmark meetings between North Korea and the United States in 2017, and comes amid reports that Pyongyang is prepared to restart nuclear tests. It was a futile effort by President Trump and other global leaders to convince North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stop developing nuclear weapons in 2018.
To update a law from 2013 that initially detailed the country’s nuclear status, the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, enacted the legislation on Thursday, as reported by the official news agency KCNA.
Kim told the assembly that he would never give up North Korea’s nuclear weapons, even if the country were subjected to 100 years of sanctions, because “the utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapons.”
Threat of an impending nuclear strike, threats to the leadership, population, or very life of the nation, or the desire to get the upper hand in a battle are all examples of situations that can prompt a nuclear assault.
According to KCNA, a lawmaker in the assembly praised the bill, saying it would provide a “strong legal guarantee” for North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state and the “transparent, consistent, and standard nature” of its nuclear programme.
According to Rob York, director of regional affairs at the Pacific Forum in Hawaii, “really stating out the criteria for use are very unusual,” and may just be a consequence of North Korea’s situation, how highly valued its nuclear weapons are, and how crucial it deems them to its existence.
PREEMPTIVE STRIKES
According to the original legislation passed in 2013, North Korea may deploy nuclear weapons in the event of an invasion or assault by another nuclear-capable state.
The new legislation goes even farther by authorizing pre-emptive nuclear attacks if an assault is detected on the country’s “strategic objectives,” which include the country’s leadership.
NK News creator Chad O’Carroll tweeted, “Under a nutshell, there are some pretty unclear and confusing scenarios in which North Korea is now claiming it may use its nuclear weapons.”
The aim, he speculated, was to make military planners in the United States and South Korea reconsider a broader spectrum of responses than they had previously.
The new legislation is similar to the old one in that it promises not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations unless they attack the North in conjunction with a nuclear-armed country.
(With inputs from Reuters)
