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North Korea passes law allowing preemptive nuclear strike

North Korea has officially enshrined the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself in a new law that leader Kim Jong Un said makes its nuclear status “irreversible” and bars denuclearisation talks, state media reported on Friday.

The Supreme People’s Assembly (North Korea’s parliament), passed the legislation on Thursday as a replacement to a 2013 law that first outlined the country’s nuclear status, according to state news agency KCNA.

“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,” Kim Jong Un said in a speech to the assembly, adding that he would never surrender the weapons even if the country faced 100 years of sanctions.

#NorthKorea has officially declared itself a nuclear weapon state. pic.twitter.com/MzhqkMKsW3

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 9, 2022

Scenarios that could trigger a nuclear attack include the threat of an imminent nuclear strike; if the country’s leadership, people or existence were under threat; or to gain the upper hand during a war, among other reasons.

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Experts say that the new law is an obvious reference to South Korea’s “Kill Chain” strategy, which calls for preemptively striking North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure and command system if an imminent attack is suspected.

Nuclear responsability

Like the earlier law, the new version of the law vows not to threaten non-nuclear states with nuclear weapons unless they join with a nuclear-armed country to attack the North.

The legislation bans any sharing of nuclear arms or technology with other countries, and is aimed at reducing the danger of nuclear war by preventing miscalculations among nuclear weapons states and misuse of nuclear weapons, KCNA reported.

Analysts point out that Kim’s goal is to win international acceptance of North Korea’s status as a “responsible nuclear state.”

Kim Jong Un: #DPRK will never give up nuclear weapons @CGTNOfficial pic.twitter.com/rzK2RxJCZi

— Zhang Meifang张美芳 (@CGMeifangZhang) September 9, 2022

Nuclear Korea

After then-US President Donald Trump and other world leaders failed to persuade Kim to abandon his weapons development during the 2018 historic summits, North Korea is now preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, observers say.

According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency report from 2017, North Korea stockpiled as many as 60 nuclear weaponsat that time, with enough fissile material to construct additional nuclear warheads.

Moreover, North Korea’s ballistic missile capabilities make it potentially possible for the communist country to launch a missile able to reach the US.

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