North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that his country would launch a nuclear attack if an enemy provokes it with nuclear weapons, apparently referring to the United States, according to state media.
Kim issued the warning when he met with soldiers during the launching drill of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), KCNA news agency reported on Thursday.
“He (Kim) said that the resolute military activity conducted by the (military’s missile) company this time … was … a clear explanation of the offensive counteraction mode and the evolution of the nuclear strategy and doctrine of the DPRK not to hesitate even a nuclear attack when the enemy provokes it with nukes,” Reuters quoted KCNA as reporting.
The North Korean leadership usually calls South Korea and the United States the enemy. Only the US is capable of mounting a nuclear attack on the North.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Tuesday it had tested its latest ICBM on Monday to measure the war readiness of its nuclear force against increasing American hostility.
According to the KCNA report, Kim said the ICBM test demonstrated the North Korean military’s high mobility and rapid attack capability, and urged the military to further strengthen its combat efficiency.
Meanwhile, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong issued a separate statement in which she said the ICBM launch was a maneuver of the nation’s right to self-defense and denounced the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for holding a session over its ICBM launch.
“The UNSC should place heavy responsibility on the irresponsible behavior and act of the US and the ROK (the Republic of Korea), which have aggravated the tension on the Korean peninsula through all sorts of military provocations all year round,” she said.
The UN Security Council has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since it first conducted a nuclear test in 2006. The country has been under harsh sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council for years.
But the North last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear program, which it says is defensive.
An emergency UN Security Council meeting was held on Tuesday on Pyongyang’s latest ICBM launch. North Korea and Russia clashed with the United States, South Korea and their allies at the meeting.
North Korean Ambassador Kim Song said this is “the most dangerous year” in the military-security landscape on the Korean Peninsula, pointing to stepped up US-South Korean military exercises and the US deployment of nuclear-powered submarines and other nuclear assets to the area that have raised a “nuclear war danger.”
The US and nine allies claimed that five North Korean ICBM launches violated multiple Security Council resolutions and threaten “the peace and stability of its neighbors and the international community.”
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood condemned the latest ICBM launch on Dec. 17 and all launches before it.
Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva called attempts to condemn Pyongyang “a one-sided approach.”
She warned that the situation is escalating “to a dangerous brink.”
She accused the United States of deploying its massive military machine in the region, adding that this looks “more and more like preparations for an offensive operation,” even though the US says it has no hostile intentions.
After the ICBM launch on Monday, the North Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson condemned the “reckless military provocations” by the US and South Korea.
The spokesperson also cited the arrival of the US attack submarine USS Missouri in South Korea last week, saying that Washington has “hatched a dangerous plot for a nuclear war.”
Pyongyang has previously warned that the US is increasing provocations of a “nuclear war” by deploying nuclear-capable bombers to the region. It said that US nuclear assets stationed in the Korean peninsula will become Pyongyang’s “first targets for destruction” in the event of an actual conflict.
