By D.W.
28 Sep 2023, 00:35 AM EDT
North Korea approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine its nuclear policy, state media reported Thursday, while the Pyongyang regime ordered the acceleration of nuclear weapons production to deter what it called “provocations” by the United States.
The Supreme People’s Assembly (parliament) unanimously approved “the crucial agenda item for formulating the DPRK’s policy on nuclear force as the basic law of the state,” KCNA said. DPRK is the initials Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of the isolated Asian country.
Addressing parliament, dictator Kim Jong Un said it was important to “accelerate the modernization of nuclear weapons in order to maintain strategic deterrence,” KCNA reported.
The amendment comes a year after North Korea claimed its right to preventive use of its nuclear weapons.
Kim urged officials to “further promote solidarity with nations that oppose the United States and the West’s hegemonic strategy,” denouncing trilateral cooperation between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo as the “Asian version of NATO.”
North Korea has carried out a record number of weapons tests this year, during which speculation has grown about a nuclear test that would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.
It also increased tension with South Korea and the United States, which have intensified joint military exercises in the area. Diplomacy is at a standstill and the possibility of negotiating a denuclearization of the peninsula seems negligible.
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