North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed the threat on the "preventive" use of his nuclear weapons to counter hostile forces, urging senior military officers on the need to "maintain absolute superiority" of the state's armed forces against countries enemies. Pyongyang, Kim added, must be able to "contain and frustrate in advance and complete all dangerous attempts and threatening moves, if necessary".
The country should therefore continue to build its arsenal in order to have " the overwhelming military force that no force in the world can provoke ", underlined the North Korean leader, calling it "the lifeline that guarantees the security of our country".
A change of strategy already announced during the military parade on April 25, when Kim made it clear that atomic deterrence is no longer sufficient and put forward the hypothesis of using the atomic arsenal even in the event of a threat to the “fundamental interests of North Korea .
Thus deterrence becomes an instrument of war. Despite heavy sanctions, North Korea doubled down on Kim 's push for military modernization, testing a range of weapons banned by UN resolutions in 2022 and ignoring US talks offers.
In March, Pyongyang tested a full-range ICBM for the first time since 2017 and satellite images showed signs of activity and work at the nuclear test site that could, according to observers, return to operation.
The tests and the new tones on nuclear power are not encouraging premises for the relations that the North is preparing to have with the South Korean president-elect, the conservative , who will take office on 10 May.
