Kim Jong Un says North Korea’s nuclear status is irreversible, threatens South

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will permanently strengthen its nuclear forces and treat South Korea as its most hostile state as he set out policy priorities in a speech to parliament, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security, regional stability and economic development. He rejected the idea that nuclear disarmament could be exchanged for economic benefits or security guarantees, saying North Korea had already proven that maintaining nuclear forces while pursuing development was the correct strategic choice.

“The current world reality, where the dignity and rights of sovereign states are mercilessly violated by unilateral force and violence, clearly teaches what the true guarantee of a state’s existence and peace is,” Kim said in the address on Monday to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the communist-run country’s rubber-stamp legislature. Nuclear weapons had deterred war and allowed the state to focus resources on economic growth, construction and living standards, he added. Analysts in South Korea said the comments amounted to an indirect critique of US military action against Iran.

“These circumstances have reinforced Pyongyang’s long-standing argument that nuclear weapons are essential to deter external intervention and safeguard regime survival,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies. Kim further accused theUnited Statesand its allies of destabilising the region by deploying strategic nuclear assets near the Korean peninsula, but said North Korea no longer viewed itself as a country under threat and possessed the power to threaten others if necessary. Kim said South Korea had been “recognised as the most hostile state” and warned Seoul that any attempt to infringe on North Korea’s sovereignty would be met “mercilessly without hesitation or restraint”.

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The comments are the latest sign of Pyongyang’s hardening stance toward Seoul since Kim dropped decades of policy seeking peaceful reunification and moved to redefine relations with the South as those between two hostile states. Analysts have been watching for any sign that this shift had been codified in law. The state media report did not elaborate. Lim Eul-chul of Kyungnam University said the language “effectively strips South Korea of any remaining status as a compatriot nation”, and goes beyond past rhetoric aimed at isolating Seoul diplomatically.

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