(Pyongyang) North Korea has included its status as a nuclear state in the Constitution, “which no one is authorized to flout”, declared the North Korean number 1, in a speech reported Thursday morning by the agency of KCNA press.
“The policy of building the nuclear force of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) has become permanent as a basic law of the state,” announced leader Kim Jong-un, using Korea’s official acronym North.
He added, during a meeting of the People’s Assembly held Tuesday and Wednesday, “that no one is allowed to flout” the basic law of the state, according to the official KCNA agency.
A year ago, North Korea, which has already carried out six nuclear tests from 2006 to 2017, announced a new doctrine making its status as a nuclear power “irreversible”, and authorizing it to carry out a preventive atomic strike in case of existential threat against his regime.
This doctrine, enshrined in law, also authorized the preventive use of nuclear weapons.
Today, the Assembly went further by including this nuclear state status in the Constitution itself.
“This is a historic event that provides powerful political leverage to remarkably strengthen national defense capabilities,” Mr. Kim said, according to the KCNA agency.
North Korea has increased its weapons tests this year, while its relations with the United States and its South Korean neighbor remain very tense. Observers fear that Pyongyang will carry out a new nuclear test, the seventh in its history, and the first since 2017.