North Korea has passed a law authorizing the launch of “automatic” nuclear weapons attacks and declaring the country’s status as a nuclear power “irreversible,” state media reported Friday.
If the command and control system of the national nuclear force is at risk of being attacked by hostile forces, a nuclear attack is carried out automatically and immediately.
According to North Korea’s official news agency, if Pyongyang’s leadership, including Kim Jong Un, were in danger, a nuclear counterattack would be launched. regardless of the type of attack suffered.
The law was approved in a session of the country’s parliament on Thursday, during which the North Korean leader assured that Pyongyang will never abandon its nuclear arsenal or give in to international sanctions against its weapons programnot even “in hundreds of years”.
This is interpreted for the purpose of underlining to the international community that North Korea is a de facto nuclear weapons state,” Kim Jong Un said.
The leader defended that nuclear weapons are necessary to combat the hostility of the United States, a country he accused of organizing a pressure campaign whose “ultimate objective” is to overthrow the North Korean government.
Diplomatic contacts between Washington and Pyongyang have been frozen since 2019 due to disagreements over the relaxation of international sanctions against North Korea and the eventual denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Kim Jong Un also criticized neighboring South Korea’s plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and resume military exercises. on a large scale with the United States, calling it a “dangerous” military action that increases tensions.
South Korea warns North of ‘severe retaliation’ if provoked
Kim has conducted weapons tests at a record pace this year, launch of more than 30 ballistic missilesincluding the first ICBM demonstrations since 2017.
North Korea has kept its borders closed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and has since rejected offers of dialogue made by Seoul and Washington.
In 2021, the North Korean regime approved a five-year weapons modernization plan, which appears to be behind preparations for a new nuclear test, detected by satellite images this year.
Kim Jong Un also revealed that the North Korea will start in November to vaccinate the population of 26 million against Covid-19without revealing how many doses the country has and how they were obtained.
GAVI, the nonprofit organization that runs the UN-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June that North Korea had accepted a vaccine offer from China.
Source: Observadora
