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| Photo Credit: AP. |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the North’s defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday.
Kim made the
comments during a speech Thursday at North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament,
where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which
Kim described as a step to cement the country’s nuclear status and make clear
such weapons will not be bargained.
The law
spells out conditions where North would be inclined to use its nuclear weapons,
including when it determines that its leadership is facing an imminent “nuclear
or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces.” The law requires North Korea’s
military to “automatically” execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces,
including their “starting point of provocation and the command,” if Pyongyang’s
leadership comes under attack.
The law also
says North Korea could use nukes to prevent an unspecified “catastrophic
crisis” to its government and people, a loose definition that experts say reflect
an escalatory nuclear doctrine that could create greater concerns for
neighbors.
Kim also
criticized South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike
capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States
to counter the North’s growing threats, describing them as a “dangerous” military
action that raises tensions.
Kim has made
increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States
and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its
nuclear weapons when threatened. His latest comments underscored the growing
animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons
and missiles program.
“The purpose
of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but
eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defense through
giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time,”
Kim said in the speech published by the North’s official Korean Central News
Agency.
“Let them
sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years,” Kim said. “We
will never give up our rights to self-defense that preserves our country’s
existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the
difficulties we are experiencing now.”
Kim also
addressed domestic issues, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed
rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didn’t specify how many doses it
would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered
across his population of 26 million people.
GAVI, the
nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June it
understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. GAVI said
at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear.
North Korea
rejected previous offers by COVAX, likely because of international monitoring
requirements, and has also ignored U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and
other COVID-19 aid.
Kim last
month declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just
three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak.
Experts believe the North’s disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help
Kim maintain absolute control.
The North
Korean report about Kim’s speech came a day after South Korea extended its
latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary
reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were
last held in 2018.
Experts say
it’s highly unlikely North Korea would accept the South’s offer considering the
stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear
talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S.-North Korean diplomacy
derailed in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling
sanctions against the North and the North’s denuclearization steps.
Kim was
combative toward South Korea in Thursday’s speech and urged his country to
expand the operational roles of its tactical nuclear weapons and accelerate
their deployment to strengthen the country’s war deterrent. Those comments
appeared to align with a ruling party decision in June to approve unspecified
new operational duties for front-line troops, which analysts say likely include
plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along
their tense border.
Cheong Seong
Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said Kim’s comments
and the new North Korean law amount to a warning that it would launch immediate
nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea if they ever attempt to
decapacitate Pyongyang’s leadership.
The North is
also communicating a threat that it could use its nuclear weapons during
conflicts with South Korea’s conventional forces, which would raise the risk of
accidental clashes escalating into a nuclear crisis, Cheong said.
North Korea
has been speeding its development of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that
can target South Korea since 2019. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles
communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger
conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S.
troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North.
The U.S.-led
diplomatic push to defuse the nuclear standoff has been further complicated by
an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and Russia’s war on Ukraine, which deepened
the divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have blocked
U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang over its revived long-range
missile tests this year.
Kim has
dialed up weapons tests to a record pace in 2020, launching more than 30
ballistic weapons, including the first demonstrations of his intercontinental
ballistic missiles since 2017.
U.S. and
South Korean officials say Kim may up the ante soon by ordering the North’s
first nuclear test in five years as he pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing
Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating
concessions from a position of strength.
Experts say
Kim is also trying to strengthen his leverage by strengthening his cooperation
with China and Russia in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S.
influence.
North Korea
has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the
West’s “hegemonic policy” justified Russian military actions in Ukraine to
protect itself. U.S. officials said this week the Russians are in the process
of purchasing North Korean ammunition, including artillery shells and rockets,
to ease their supply shortages in the war against Ukraine.
North Korea
also has joined Russia and Syria as the only nations to recognize the
independence of two pro-Russia breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine and has
discussed send its construction workers to those regions to work on rebuilding.