(Seoul) North Korea will not hesitate to respond with atomic weapons if it is itself “provoked” by nuclear weapons, said its leader Kim Jong-un, according to comments reported Thursday by a media outlet. ‘State.
Kim Jong-un ordered his country’s strategic missile forces office to “not hesitate (to launch, editor’s note) even a nuclear attack if the enemy provokes with nuclear weapons”, according to the official news agency of Pyongyang.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo immediately reacted in a joint statement by urging Pyongyang to “stop carrying out new provocations and accept (their) call to engage in a substantial dialogue without preconditions”.
During a meeting between American and South Korean officials at the end of last week, Washington reaffirmed its “unwavering commitment” to Seoul by relying on its deterrent force, including nuclear power.
“Any nuclear attack” by Pyongyang on the United States or its allies would bring about the “end of the North Korean regime,” Washington warned at the time.
An American nuclear submarine, the USS Missourialso arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Sunday.
Pyongyang reacted the next day by test firing its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the most powerful in its arsenal and probably capable of reaching the entire American territory, a clear warning to Washington and its allies. .
As a result, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo activated a real-time data sharing system on North Korean missile launches on Tuesday, and military forces from the three allied countries carried out joint maneuvers on Wednesday, including American bombers.
Dangerous “rhetorical escalation”
Pyongyang sees Washington, Seoul and Tokyo’s regular military maneuvers on its doorstep as a rehearsal for a future invasion of its territory, and has long viewed its missile tests as necessary “countermeasures.”
North Korea has carried out a record number of missile tests this year in violation of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning it.
Invariably supported by China, the country has also recently moved closer to Russia and in November succeeded in putting its first spy satellite into orbit.
Pyongyang also announced last year a new doctrine making its status as a nuclear power “irreversible”, which the regime considers essential to ensure its survival.
South Korea’s defense minister warned last week that North Korea would suffer “horrible destruction” if it engaged in “reckless” actions against peace, an unusually harsh warning from Seoul.
The two Koreas are currently “at a high point of rhetorical escalation and threats of pre-emptive attacks”, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
The latest developments “clearly reflect the seriousness of the situation,” he added.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since the end of the conflict on the peninsula in 1953, which ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, and their common border is particularly fortified.
In a separate statement Thursday, Kim Jong-un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, denounced the United Nations Security Council’s decision to debate the latest firing of North Korea’s Hwasong-18 missile, saying the test was a manifestation of Pyongyang’s inherent right to self-defense.
“The frequent appearance of American nuclear weapons” in South Korea “clearly targets the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and constitutes the root cause of the escalation of the regional situation,” thundered Kim Yo Jong again, using the official name of North Korea.