Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
It is allegedly the recent events in Iran, that has prompted Pyongyang to make the change.
North Korea altering the country’s constitution is not necessarily an international news story, but when the altering includes the possibility of a nuclear strike on another country, it’s worth taking notes.
The Telegraph reports that North Koreas altered its legal framework is to guarantee an automatic nuclear attack if foreign forces assassinate the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
The policy shift follows recent strikes in Iran, which saw the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, being killed.
Lawmakers in North Korea approved the sweeping revision during a March assembly. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) recently briefed officials on the update.
The revised document sets terrifying new rules. It states, “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately.”
Watching from afar
The destruction of top Iranian leadership clearly rattled the isolated nation. Kookmin University professor Andrei Lankov carefully explained the urgency behind the new law.
“This may have been policy before, but it has added emphasis now it has been enshrined in the constitution,” Lankov told The Telegraph.
He added, “Iran was the wake-up call. North Korea saw the remarkable efficiency of the US-Israeli decapitation attacks, which immediately eliminated the greater part of the Iranian leadership, and they must now be terrified.”
Pulling off a similar strike in Pyongyang remains incredibly difficult. The government simply refuses to open its borders.
Pointing guns south
Meanwhile, the military is pushing heavy conventional weapons toward the southern border. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim inspected a new self-propelled howitzer.
State media claims the artillery reaches past 37 miles. That impressive distance puts the heavily populated center of Seoul directly in the crosshairs.
Kim praised the weapons. The news outlet quoted him saying the hardware will “provide significant changes and advantages to our military’s ground operations”.
Sources: National Intelligence Service, Kookmin University, Korean Central News Agency, The Telegraph
