North Korea Takes Major Nuclear Step, Approves Automatic Nuclear Strike Policy If Kim Jong-un Is Assassinated

NORTH KOREA: North Korea is updating its constitution to include an automatic nuclear strike if its leader Kim Jong-un is assassinated or incapacitated by an enemy, reports The Telegraph citing a briefing by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The constitutional shift followed joint US-Israeli military action against Iran that killed top adviser Ahmed Moshiripour and supreme leader Ali Khamenei, which has apparently shaken Pyongyang’s leadership.

The move has been paralleled to Russia’s Cold War era “Dead Hand” system, code-named Perimeter. The Soviet Union developed the system during the Cold War when it was intended to automatically fire back with a nuclear strike if the leadership and command of the Soviet Union were destroyed in an attack on it.

Pyongyang’s new doctrine seems to follow a similar logic of deterrence: Even if Kim Jong-un dies, his successor is still going to tell the world that Pyongyang is still going to pursue a nuclear deterrent anyway.

When was the new amendment passed? 

The amendment was passed in the first session of North Korea’s 15th Supreme People’s Assembly held from March 22 in Pyongyang. The changes were made public on Thursday at an NIS briefing to top South Korean government officials.

This all happened just months after top Iranian leaders, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several senior advisers, were killed in US-Israeli military strikes.

North Korea Reveals New Nuclear Deterrence Strategy

Prof. Andrei Lankov from Kookmin University said the policy might’ve been around before, but now it’s front and center after being added to the constitution. “Iran was a wake-up call. North Korea saw how quickly US and Israeli forces wiped out most of Iran’s leadership. They must be terrified now,” he told the outlet.

North Korean state media also said Pyongyang plans to roll out a new long-range artillery system near the South Korean border later this year. KCNA reported that Kim recently checked out a “new-type 155-millimeter self-propelled gun-howitzer.” This weapon can hit targets more than 37 miles away. For context, central Seoul is about 35 miles from the border.

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