North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un claimed that “North Korea is a nuclear state” and said, “If (South Korea and the United States) attempt to use force to violate sovereignty, we will mercilessly use all the offensive power at our disposal, including nuclear weapons.” “The survival of Seoul and the Republic of Korea will be impossible,” he threatened. Chairman Kim himself came forward and explicitly threatened a nuclear attack on South Korea, making it clear that he had no intention of giving up nuclear weapons, saying, “We have irreversibly secured the absolute power of a nuclear power.” With 33 days remaining until the U.S. presidential election, the remarks are interpreted as an attempt to engage in nuclear negotiations, including nuclear disarmament, based on the next U.S. administration’s status as a nuclear weapons state.
According to North Korean state media, including the Korean Central News Agency, on the 4th, Chairman Kim inspected the training base of the Korean People’s Army Special Operations Forces in the western region on the 2nd and said, “Puppet Yoon Seok-yeol is making an overwhelming response of military power at the doorstep of a country that possesses nuclear weapons. “I uploaded it, but it was a spectacle that inevitably aroused suspicion that I was a person with some integrity,” he criticized. It has been two years and three months since Chairman Kim directly mentioned President Yoon’s name and criticized him, calling him “Yoon Seok-yeol and his military thugs” in his Victory Day speech in July 2022.
Chairman Kim’s remarks were a response to President Yoon’s earlier warning in his Armed Forces Day speech on the 1st that if North Korea proceeds to use nuclear weapons, “that day will be the end of the regime.”
Chairman Kim reiterated his intention not to give up nuclear weapons, saying that North Korea is a “nuclear state” and “a nuclear power.” Our military said, “It is absolutely unacceptable behavior to directly criticize the commander-in-chief of our armed forces,” and dismissed it as “an expression of (the North Korean leadership’s) nervousness and anxiety due to our military’s strong capabilities and firm posture.”
Targeting South Korea and the United States, Chairman Kim asserted, “They will never be able to take away our nuclear weapons,” and added, “We have overcome arduous challenges over a long period of time and have irreversibly secured absolute power as a nuclear power and the system and functions to use it.” It clearly revealed its intention to solidify its status as a ‘nuclear state’ by emphasizing ‘no denuclearization’. This is interpreted as a plan to hold nuclear disarmament negotiations with the next US administration after the US presidential election on the 5th of next month. Recently, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said, “North Korea must acknowledge that it possesses nuclear weapons.” As some voices in the international community have raised voices calling for North Korea to possess nuclear weapons, some analysts have indicated an intention to join the bandwagon. .
Chairman Kim stated that he would “use all the offensive power at hand” and “realistic predictions based on physical destructive power, not rhetorical threats,” and that he would use not only nuclear weapons but also conventional weapons, such as the recently unveiled 4.5-ton ultra-large warhead-equipped missile, in an attack against South Korea. The point was also made clear. Moon Seong-mook, director of the Unification Strategy Center at the Korea Institute for National Strategy (reserve brigadier general), said, “The Hyunmoo-5 and the U.S. Air Force’s B-1B strategic bomber unveiled by our military on Armed Forces Day are evidence of Kim Jong-un’s fear of the strengthening of the ROK-U.S. extended deterrence (nuclear umbrella).” “It could be,” he said.
A government official said, “It can also be seen as an attempt to instill hostility toward South Korea ahead of the 11th meeting of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly to be held on the 7th.” At this Supreme People’s Assembly, it was predicted that Chairman Kim’s new line, which claimed that “North-South relations are the most hostile relationship between the two countries,” will be reflected in the North Korean constitution.
Meanwhile, Chairman Kim’s younger sister, Vice-Chairman Kim Yo-jong of the Workers’ Party, criticized the ‘Hyunmoo-5’ surface-to-surface ballistic missile unveiled by our military on Armed Forces Day, calling it an “abomination” and “a needlessly bulky weapon” and saying, “(North Korean military) “The delivery capacity of one ultra-large multiple rocket launcher is calculated to be equivalent to the explosive power of 900 tons when converted to conventional explosives,” he claimed. It was threatened that the power of the tactical nuclear weapon mounted on the super-large multiple rocket launcher (KN-25) was more than 100 times that of the Hyunmoo-5 (warhead weight 8 tons). KN-25 is equipped with 4 to 6 launch tubes on a mobile launch vehicle (TEL).
According to Kim Yo-jong’s claim, this means that each multiple rocket launcher is equipped with a tactical nuclear warhead of at least 0.15 kt (kiloton, 1 kt is the destructive power of 1,000 tons of TNT) and up to 0.225 kt. Converted to conventional explosives, this means that they can exert a destructive power of at least 18 times and up to 28 times that of Hyunmoo-5, at 150 tons and 225 tons, respectively. Regarding this, there are also speculations that North Korea may have already completed the deployment of the ‘Hwasan-31’ nuclear warhead unveiled in March of last year by mounting it on the KN-25. Chairman Kim has supervised a series of nuclear strike exercises against South Korea using the KN-25 from March of this year until recently. South Korean and U.S. authorities see this as practical training to use the KN-25 as the ‘main gun’ for a nuclear wave attack against South Korea in case of emergency.
However, a military official pointed out, “(Kim Yo-jong’s claim) is impossible with a conventional weapon system and does not fit well with other systems (nuclear weapons),” and “there is a possibility of deception.”
Military reporter Sang-ho Yoon [email protected]
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2024-10-05 01:25:27