North Korea has passed a law authorizing it to carry out a pre-emptive atomic strike and declaring the country’s status as a nuclear power “irreversible”, state media said on Friday.
“If the command and control system of the national nuclear force is in danger of being attacked by hostile forces, a nuclear strike is carried out automatically and immediately,” the law states, according to the state agency KCNA.
With this new text, “our country’s status as a nuclear-weapon state has become irreversible,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said, according to KCNA.
The announcement comes amid strained inter-Korean relations, with Pyongyang accusing Seoul of being responsible for the recent COVID-19 outbreak that hit the country while threatening its neighbor with reprisals.
North Korea has conducted a series of tests this year despite sanctions, including that of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017.
US and South Korean officials have repeatedly warned that the North is preparing to conduct what would become its seventh nuclear test.
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