Seoul, Sep 28 (EFE).- North Korea has constitutionally boosted its nuclear force during a key parliament session and in the face of the allyship of South Korea, the United States and Japan, which it said was the “worst actual threat.”
Pyongyang decided to supplement Article 58 of its constitution with the objective of increasing its nuclear capabilities “to ensure the country’s right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level,” according to statements by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un published Thursday by state news agency, KCNA.
The decision took place during a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday – the ninth session of the current parliament, which deals mainly with organizational issues and adopts laws.
“This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defense capabilities, including the nuclear force, for firmly consolidating the institutional and legal foundations for guaranteeing security and protecting national interests,” Kim said in the speech published by KCNA.
During the meeting in September last year, the North Korean regime announced a tightening of its nuclear policy with a law that allows it to carry out preventive nuclear attacks, and assured that it will never give up its atomic weapons despite the pressure of sanctions.
In his latest speech, Kim also criticized the trilateral collaboration between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, saying that it “is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity.”
In this sense, he highlighted the importance of “exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services.”
“As long as our Republic exists as a socialist state and as long as the tyrannical nuclear weapons of the imperialists trying to stamp out independence and socialism exist on the earth, we must neither change nor concede the present position of our country as a nuclear weapons state, but, on the contrary, continue to further strengthen the nuclear force,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Some media speculated that during this session Kim could dismiss his prime minister, Kim Tok-hun, after criticism received for his management in preventing damage caused by summer rains around the city of Nampo, on the western coast of the country.
Although this dismissal has not occurred, Kim made three appointments that could be related to the rains: he appointed Ri Sun-chol as Minister of State Construction Control, Jon Chol-su as Minister of Land and Environmental Protection and Kim Kwang-jin as Minister of Food Procurement and Administration.
He also appointed An Kyong-gun as Minister of Machine-building Industry, a key portfolio linked to weapons of mass destruction programs.
North Korea also renamed the National Aerospace Development Administration, an agency in charge of launching military spy satellites, to the National Aerospace Technology General Bureau.
Although the SPA claims to be the country’s legislative body, its functions as automatic endorsement of the decisions taken by the regime’s leadership and Kim. EFE
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