North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has enshrined the country’s status as a nuclear power in law and allowed the use of pre-emptive strikes, as the regime seeks to take advantage of mounting tensions between the US and Russia and China to shift policy.
State media reported on Friday that Kim had vowed to never enter into talks on giving up his nuclear weapons after the law was passed by the country’s supreme people’s assembly the previous day.
Analysts said North Korea’s declared nuclear doctrine now allows pre-emptive strikes in a wide range of scenarios, including when the country or the government is attacked by conventional forces. The previous policy only allowed for the use of nuclear weapons in a second-strike scenario.