North Korea declares itself a nuclear weapons state, in ‘irreversible’ move
Kim vowed the country would “never give up” its nuclear weapons and said there could be no negotiations on denuclearization as he hailed the passage of the law, North Korean state media reported Friday.The new law also enshrines Pyongyang’s right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself — updating a previous stance under which it had said it would keep its weapons only until other countries denuclearized and would not use them preemptively against non-nuclear states.Nuclear weapons represent the “dignity, body, and absolute power of the state,” Kim said as he welcomed the decision by the country’s It comes amid rising regional tensions over North Korea’s expansion of its nuclear weapons and missiles program. Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia in recent months.At the same time, the US has become increasingly concerned that North Korea may be preparing to carry out its first underground nuclear test in yearsYang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the law demonstrated Pyongyang’s hopes of strengthening its relations with China and Russia at a time of heightened global tensions.”North Korea mentioning the possibility of using nuclear weapons if and when an attack on the state and leader is imminent is significant, even though it states nuclear weapons as a defensive last resort,” Yang said.
