Kim Jong-un says North Korea will use nuclear weapons ‘at any time’ if threatened

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to move faster to bolster his nuclear forces and threatened to use them if provoked in a speech at a military parade that featured powerful weapons systems that could be used to attack the country’s rivals.

His comments suggest he will continue provocative weapons tests in a lobbying campaign for concessions from the United States and its allies. Monday night’s parade was to mark the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s military, the backbone of the Kim family’s authoritarian rule, and took place as the country’s economy is hit by difficulties related to the pandemic, punishing the sanctions imposed by the United States and its own mismanagement.

State media photos showed Kim, dressed in a white military ceremonial coat, smiling and waving from a balcony along with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and other senior MPs.

“[We] will continue to take steps to further develop our state’s nuclear forces at the fastest possible speed,” Kim told his troops and the crowd gathered for the parade in a Pyongyang square, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). .

He repeated an earlier message that North Korea could use its nuclear weapons preemptively when threatened by attack, calling for its nuclear forces to be fully prepared to “move in at any moment.”

“The fundamental mission of our nuclear forces is to deter war, but our nuclear weapons can never be limited to the sole mission of deterring war, even at a time when a situation is created on this earth that we absolutely do not want,” he said. Kim. saying. “If any force tries to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish their unexpected second mission,” which would leave any invading force “perished,” he said.

The parade featured thousands of goose-stepping troops shouting “hooray!” and some of North Korea’s most powerful missiles. Some intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) could bring the American homeland within range, and a variety of shorter-range solid-fuel missiles pose a growing threat to South Korea and Japan.

One of the weapons on display in the brightly lit Kim Il-sung Square, named after Kim’s late grandfather and state founder, was North Korea’s newest and largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17.

North Korea claimed to have successfully tested that missile last month, but South Korea concluded that the launch was from the smaller Hwasong-15 and that the Hwasong-17 launch had failed. Whatever the weapon, the March 24 launch was its first full-range ICBM flight test in more than four years and the missile flew longer and higher than any missile launched by North Korea.

KCNA said spectators at the parade gave loud cheers when they saw the Hwasong-17, which it said showed “the sheer power of juche [self-reliance]Korea and the strategic position of our republic before the world”.

North Korea often marks key state anniversaries by mobilizing large crowds to boost internal unity. Tuesday’s KCNA dispatch praised Kim for achieving “the great historic cause of completing nuclear forces by making a long journey of patriotic devotion with a will that defies death” to free his people from war.

Kim has been reviving brinksmanship nuclear policy with the goal of forcing the United States to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and remove crippling economic sanctions, taking advantage of a favorable environment to push his weapons program while the U.S. Security Council UN remains divided over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements over possible relaxation of US-led sanctions in exchange for North Korean disarmament steps. Kim has stuck to his goals of simultaneously developing nuclear weapons and the country’s dismal economy in the face of international pressure, and has shown no willingness to fully surrender a nuclear arsenal he sees as his best guarantee of survival.

North Korea has conducted 13 rounds of weapons tests this year. There are also signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear test range that was last active in 2017, possibly in preparation for the explosion of a nuclear device.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have gained the ability to launch nuclear strikes on the US mainland after a torrid series of nuclear and missile tests. North Korea had stopped such high-profile tests before entering the now dormant diplomacy with the US.

Kim’s aggressive military push may be motivated by domestic politics, as he otherwise has no significant achievements to show his people as he marks a decade in power. He failed to get much-needed sanctions relief from his diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump, and the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed further shocks to the country’s broken economy, forcing him to acknowledge last year that South Korea North was facing its “worst situation”. ”.