North Korea authorizes ‘automatic nuclear strike’ if leader is assassinated
In a significant revision of its constitutional law, North Korea has officially mandated that its military launch a nuclear retaliatory strike if the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is assassinated by foreign forces.
The amendment was presented during the inaugural session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly, convened on March 22 in Pyongyang.
Details were confirmed in a briefing provided to senior members of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Thursday.
Central to this new constitutional directive is the revised Article 3 of North Korea's nuclear policy law, which stipulates that should “the command-and-control system governing the state's nuclear forces is jeopardized by hostile forces' assaults, a nuclear strike shall be initiated automatically and without delay.”
The constitutional revision came months after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was martyred during coordinated US-Israeli attacks on Tehran.
Andrei Lankov, a historian and international relations expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, emphasized that while this may have been an underlying policy before, its enshrinement in the constitution provides it with renewed significance.
He told The Telegraph that the new constitutional amendment indicates a critical stance from North Korea’s military, reinforcing that any assault on the nation will be viewed as an existential threat.
Therefore, he said, the officers tasked with launching a retaliatory nuclear attack would feel obliged to carry it out.
“I see no likelihood of an attack coming from South Korea so any retaliation would be aimed at the United States,” Lankov added.
On February 28, the United States and Israel initiated a large-scale and unprovoked war against Iran, assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders.
In response, Iranian Armed Forces carried out a series of retaliatory missile and drone operations against US and Israeli military assets for 40 days.
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