September 28th 2023.
Kim Jong-un has issued a stark warning to the United States in a "new Cold War," calling for an exponential increase in the production of nuclear weapons. This demand was enshrined in law during a two-day session of North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly.
The Assembly unanimously adopted a revision that states North Korea will "develop highly nuclear weapons to ensure its rights to existence and to deter war." Kim himself declared that the DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has become the "basic law of the state," which cannot be flouted.
This comes shortly after Kim's much-publicised visit to Russia last month, where he met with President Vladimir Putin and visited military and technology sites. This has sparked Western concerns that North Korea and Russia may be in talks for an arms alliance, in which North Korea would supply Putin with munitions in exchange for economic aid and advanced Russian technologies.
Kim also highlighted the need to "push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services." He described the world as entering a ‘new Cold War’ and that North Korea should advance its nuclear capabilities in response.
He further accused the United States and its allies in South Korea and Japan of creating an "Asian version of NATO," and urged his diplomats to "further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the U.S. and the West’s strategy for hegemony."
Considering the recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea having test-fired over 100 missiles since the start of 2022 and the US expanding its military exercises with its Asian allies, it is clear that Kim is taking steps to protect and strengthen his regime.
The assembly passed a new nuclear doctrine into law last year, authorising pre-emptive nuclear strikes if North Korea’s leadership is perceived as under threat. Reaction to this has been swift, with South Korea's unification ministry warning that North Korea will face an "end of its regime" if it uses nuclear weapons, while Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno declared that North Korea's nuclear and missile development "can never be tolerated."
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