North Korea enshrines its status as a nuclear state in its Constitution

Hopes of denuclearizing North Korea continue to dwindle. Pyongyang has decided to include its status as a nuclear state in the Constitution, according to a speech by leader Kim Jong-un reported Thursday morning, September 28, by the KCNA news agency.

“The DPRK’s Nuclear Force Building Policy [République populaire démocratique de Corée] has become permanent as a fundamental law of the State », announced Kim Jong-un. He added, during a meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly held on Tuesday and Wednesday, “which no one is allowed to flout” the basic law of the state, according to the official KCNA agency.

A year ago, North Korea, which has already carried out six nuclear tests from 2006 to 2017, announced a new doctrine making “irreversible” its status as a nuclear power, and authorizing it to carry out a preventive atomic strike in the event of an existential threat against its regime. By this time including the status of a nuclear state in the Constitution itself, the Assembly went even further.

“This is a historic event that provides powerful political leverage to remarkably strengthen national defense capabilities”, said Mr. Kim, according to the KCNA agency. The North Korean leader also accused Washington, Seoul and Tokyo of having formed a “triangular military alliance” who has “ultimately resulted in the emergence of an Asian version of NATO”.

“This is the worst real threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity”, added Mr. Kim. Faced with this ” threat “says leader, it is essential for North Korea “to accelerate the modernization of its nuclear weapons in order to maintain a definitive advantage in the deterrence strategy”. Mr. Kim stressed the need to strengthen the production of nuclear arsenal and “diversify the types of nuclear strikes”according to KCNA.

This speech “means that the nuclear force becomes a permanent fact” in North Korea, according to Yang Moon-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

American policy in Asia blacklisted

At the United Nations (UN) at the end of September, Pyongyang warned, through its ambassador to the UN, that the Korean peninsula was “on the brink of nuclear war”, criticizing American policy in Asia. Western observers fear that Pyongyang will carry out a new nuclear test, the seventh in its history, the first since 2017. “If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be stopped by an overwhelming response from the U.S.-South Korean alliance”warned South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl.

North Korea has increased its testing of banned weapons this year. During the last of these tests, on September 13, it fired two short-range ballistic missiles, while Kim Jong-un was in Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last month, Pyongyang failed in its second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit.

In response, South Korea and the United States have strengthened their defense cooperation, organizing joint exercises as well as naval maneuvers with Japan.

Diplomacy at a standstill

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in years and diplomacy is at a standstill. On September 2, North Korea held a military exercise. “tactical nuclear attack simulation” with mock atomic warheads attached to two long-range cruise missiles that were fired into the ocean, according to KCNA. The state agency had presented this operation as a response to joint military activities between Washington and Seoul which, according to it, have aggravated tensions in the region.

Mr Kim’s week-long visit to Russia, his first abroad since the coronavirus pandemic, has reignited Western fears that Moscow and Pyongyang will defy sanctions. Moscow is said to be interested in purchasing North Korean munitions for its offensive in Ukraine, while Pyongyang would like Russia’s help in developing its missile program.