North Korea amends constitution on nuclear policy, cites US provocations.

State media announced on Thursday that North Korea has accepted a constitutional amendment to codify its use of nuclear weapons, as the country’s leader promised to quicken nuclear weapon manufacturing to ward off what he called American provocations.

After a two-day meeting of the North’s rubber-stamp parliament ended on Wednesday, the Supreme People’s Assembly unanimously approved the modification that reads that North Korea “develops highly nuclear weapons to ensure” its “rights to existence” and to “deter war.”

Speaking before the parliament, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared, “The DPRK’s nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything.” The North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is abbreviated as DPRK.

The necessity to “push ahead with the work for exponentially increasing nuclear weapon production and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services,” Kim continued, was emphasized.

He also said that American military exercises and the placement of strategic assets in the area amounted to grave provocations.

According to South Korea’s unification ministry, the rewritten constitution demonstrates Pyongyang’s “strong will” to continue its nuclear development.

It issued a statement warning that North Korea’s dictatorship would be overthrown if nuclear weapons were used.

Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary of Japan, declared: “North Korea’s nuclear and missile development poses threats to peace and safety of our country and the international community, and can never be tolerated.”

The change was made a year after North Korea formally codified its right to defend itself with preemptive nuclear attacks, a step Kim had said would render its nuclear status “irreversible.”

Denouncing trilateral cooperation between the US, South Korea, and Japan as the “Asian version of NATO,” Kim encouraged authorities to foster further unity with the countries opposing the US.

He did not use frightening rhetoric or an artificial danger, but he declared that this was the worst possible threat.

Last week, Kim returned from a trip to Russia, where he and President Vladimir Putin decided to expand their economic and military ties.

Officials from the United States and South Korea have voiced concern that Pyongyang could seek technological assistance for its nuclear and missile programs. Meanwhile, Moscow is attempting to buy ammunition from the North to augment its depleting supplies for the war in Ukraine.

According to analysts, the inclusion of the nuclear strategy in the constitution is only a symbolic declaration by the North of its determination to maintain a permanent nuclear force over which it would not engage in negotiations.

“The new Cold War in the Northeast Asia region and military tensions on the Korean peninsula will intensify,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea warned Pyongyang that using nuclear weapons would result in an “overwhelming response” as Seoul staged the first significant military parade in a decade as a show of might.

On Wednesday, the North Korean state media reported that Pyongyang has chosen to remove Private Travis King, the American soldier who broke into North Korea in July. This news was followed by a statement by parliament on Thursday. He has been sent back to the United States and is currently in American custody, according to the United States.

In his address, Kim declared that overseeing a significant overhaul of the nation’s economy was “the most pressing task for the government.” He asked the agriculture industry to strive more to advance the populace’s well-being.

International experts have cautioned that border controls during the COVID-19 epidemic aggravated food security issues. The North has had severe food shortages in previous decades, including famine in the 1990s.