North Korea’s Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike Laws Raises Concern For United States, South Korea

What comes as a new development in the secluded authoritarian regime in North Korea, held by the Democratic People's Republic of Korean under Kim Jong Un is the new Nuclear laws that would act as a counter to the denuclearisation policies adopted by the United States.

The right to a pre-emptive strike to the leadership and organization handling the nuclear resources in the country in the face of any hostility has been recently adopted by the Supreme People’s Assembly. This is a major source of concern for the United Nations that has for long held sanctions against the state that has now altered the nuclear policy. The official statement highlights the fact that North Korea shall never surrender or export its nuclear weapons, maintaining a consolidated and firm stance of its resolute nuclear policies.

The last of the nuclear testing in North Korea happened in Punggye-ri that had between 100 to 370 kilotons of force, hundred times stronger than the bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. It was a powerful thermonuclear weapon, and there have been researches since then in order to develop a more compact warhead that can be used with even short- ranged missiles. 

The atomic agency of the United Nations through satellite imaging has gauged the full fledged running of the nuclear programme in North Korea, like enrichment of uranium, plutonium separation that are used for these high grade nuclear weapons. This is moving away from the promise with the then Trump government that North Korea would cease to use nuclear enrichment facilities for mass nuclear production.

Even China’s policy in North Korea has been to maintain peace and harmony, by promoting denuclearisation. This change in legislation could be seen as the result of the hostile foreign policies (“Kill Chain”) of South Korea, fortified under the leadership of  President Yoon Suk-yeol who had been proactive in controlling nuclear tensions by being ready to attack North korea’s military, command and nuclear facilities in the face of hostility.

The number of test missiles launched by North Korea under Kim Jong Un has increased to about 29 in 2022 from his father’s regime when there were around 16 in 2009. The increase could be attributed to Jong Un’s arbitrary and aggressive foreign policies, that could use the best of the support from Russia and China to counter the threat from the United States and South Korea, which is evident from North Korea’s recent stance in rejecting help in  securing energy, food supplies among other things from South Korea in return for a deal to give up North Korea’s nuclear programme, that has changed its nuclear policy after coming out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 to conduct its first nuclear test on 9th October, 2006. What lies ahead of this nuclear tension shall be unfurled in the coming days, but attempts must be made for peace building drills through diplomatic conversations to avoid nuclear hostility in East Asia.