North Korean leader Kim Jong Un He asked his military high command to use maximum force against South Korea and the United States if they initiate a military confrontation, The state press reported this Monday.
In a meeting with military leaders in Pyongyang on the eve of the New Year, Kim said his armed forces must “annihilate” the enemy if provoked, the official KCNA news agency reported.
“If the enemy chooses military confrontation against the DPRK (North Korea), “Our army must deal a mortal blow to completely annihilate them by mobilizing the strongest means without hesitation.”said Kim.
Seoul and Washington have intensified defense cooperation in the face of the wave of weapons tests carried out by the North last year.
Kim's statement echoes threats he made at his party's year-end meetings about a nuclear attack on Seoul and orders from to shore up the war arsenal in preparation for a war, which in his opinion could “break out at any moment.”
(Also read: North Korea launches fifth long-range missile this year: capable of reaching the US)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, watching a grand New Year's performance with his daughter.
During the Korean Workers' Party meetings, Kim accused the United States of being a “military threat” and called on the military to “suppress the entire South Korean territory by mobilizing all physical means… including nuclear forces” in the event of an armed confrontation.
“A war can break out at any time on the peninsula due to the enemies' reckless moves to invade us,” Kim said.
(You can read: Why does North Korea's spy rocket launch strain relations with Seoul?)
He announced that he will not seek reconciliation and reunification with Seoul due to the “uncontrollable crisis” that, according to him, South Korea and the United States have caused.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their worst moments, after the North launched a spy satellite which led Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at reducing tensions on the peninsula.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their worst moments, after the North launched a spy satellite.
“I think it is a mistake that we should not continue to make regarding people who declare us as their 'main enemy'… as someone with whom to seek reconciliation and reunification,” KCNA reported, quoting Kim.
Kim ordered the development of policies to reorganize the departments that handle border affairs, in order to “radically change course.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has promised to keep military provocations from the North at bay, with an expanded deterrence system with Washington that will take effect in early 2024.
In his New Year's message, Yoon said such a system “will fundamentally deter any North Korean nuclear and missile threat.”
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Pyongyang's bellicose rhetoric suggests that its military measures are not only about deterrence but also about its domestic politics.
Leif Easley, professor of international relations at Ewha University in Seoul, He said that North Korea's emphasis on its “significant nuclear capabilities” was actually intended to hide the country's limited economic achievements this year.
“A lot of what the state-controlled media publishes is propaganda,” Easley said. “Pyongyang's bellicose rhetoric suggests that its military measures are not only about deterrence but also about its domestic politics and international coercion.”
The North declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year and assures that its nuclear program is key to its survival.
The United Nations Security Council adopted several resolutions urging North Korea to stop its ballistic and nuclear programs since its first nuclear test in 2006.
AFP
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