North Korea adopted an amendment to its Constitution that formally declared the country a “responsible nuclear weapons state” in an attempt to make its illegal nuclear program permanent, state media announced on Thursday.
The official state newspaper of the communist regime, Rodong Sinmun, reported that the “Supreme People’s Assembly” adopted the amendment during a special session on Tuesday and Wednesday attended by dictator Kim Jong-un. Kim reportedly offered a brief speech in celebration of the success of North Korea’s illegal weapons program.
The amendment follows a dramatic escalation in tensions between North Korea and its geopolitical enemies, South Korea and America, in the past year, accelerated by Kim’s command to his regime demanding an “exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal.” Kim’s call followed a transfer of power in Seoul from leftist former President Moon Jae-in to the incumbent, conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, in 2022 and a significant policy change for South Korea. Yoon has publicly considered nuclear armament for his country and repeatedly threatened to “end” the repressive Kim dynasty, most recently this week.
FILE – South Korea’s then-President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a news conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on March 10, 2022 (Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP, File).
The “Supreme People’s Assembly” entertained the constitutional amendment on nuclear weapons, Rodong Sinmun explained, “to stipulate the position of the nuclear force in the national defence.”
“The DPRK [North Korea], a responsible nuclear weapons state, develops highly nuclear weapons to ensure the rights to existence and development of the country, deter war and defend peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world,” the amendment declared. It also asserted that the communist military’s goal is “to defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity and the rights and interests of the people” as well as “protect the socialist system and the gains of the revolution from all threats.”
Rodong Sinmun declared, citing a senior North Korean official, that the development of the illegal nuclear weapons program and impoverished North Korea’s alleged “successes in its economic and cultural fields … clearly proved the validity and vitality of the codification of the state’s policy on the nuclear force.” In celebration of the amendment’s passing, Kim Jong-un reportedly issued a speech celebrating the country’s illegal nuclear arsenal.
“The DPRK’s nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything,” Kim reportedly said, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap. “This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defense capabilities.”
This effusive celebration of nuclear proliferation follows the communist regime declaring before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that the United States was making a global nuclear war increasingly possible with its “reckless” aggression and “hysteria.”
“From the beginning of the year, the U.S. and the Republic of Korea made hysterical remarks of confrontation such as ‘end of the regime’ and ‘occupation of Pyongyang’ in flagrant violation of the principles and purposes of the UN Charter,” North Korean ambassador to the U.N., Kim Song, accused. “Owing to the reckless and continued hysteria of nuclear showdown on the part of the U.S. and its following forces, the year 2023 has been recorded as an extremely dangerous year that the military security situation in and around the Korean peninsula was driven closer to the brink of a nuclear war.”
In reality, nuclear “hysteria” out of Pyongyang has been the loudest of any nation in the past year, escalating after Kim made a demand to his military to “exponentially increase” the number of nuclear bombs the nation possessed.
“Now that the south [sic] Korean puppet forces who designated the DPRK [North Korea] as their ‘principal army’ and openly trumpet about ‘preparations for war’ have assumed our undoubted enemy,” Kim said in late December 2022, “it highlights the importance and necessity of a mass-producing of tactical nuclear weapons and calls for an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal.”
North Korea has since claimed to have simulated nuclear bombings of America and South Korea, claimed it developed its first nuclear attack submarine, and threatened to use nuclear weapons against both countries in response to a visit by the nuclear-powered USS Kentucky to the southern Korean port city of Busan in July.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second left, looks at what is says is a new nuclear attack submarine, “Hero Kim Kun Ok,” at an unspecified place in North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023 (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP).
Kim Song, the U.N. ambassador, did accurately describe South Korea as repeatedly threatening to end the Kim family dynasty – if Kim Jong-un decided to use nuclear weapons.
“The two countries will overwhelmingly and resolutely respond to North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threats through the NCG and regular deployments of strategic assets, such as the SSBN,” South Korean President Yoon said aboard the USS Kentucky in July. “By doing so, we will make North Korea not even dream of carrying out a nuclear provocation, and we warned clearly that should North Korea carry out a provocation, it will lead to the end of that regime.”
Yoon made a similar vow during a military parade on Tuesday.
“If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be brought to an end by an overwhelming response from the ROK-U.S. alliance,” the president said.
