North Korea Plans Nuclear Retaliation if Kim Is Killed

North Korea has amended its constitution to allow the military to launch an automatic nuclear counterattack if leader Kim Jong Un is killed, according to the Telegraph.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said the change was approved during the March session of the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang. The revised nuclear policy provision states that if the command system controlling the country’s nuclear forces is threatened by an enemy attack, a nuclear strike will be carried out “automatically and immediately”.

Kim remains the supreme commander of North Korea’s nuclear forces, but the new provision is intended to ensure retaliation even if he is killed or unable to make decisions.

Experts said the move appeared to be a response to recent US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several senior regime officials. Analyst Andrei Lankov said Pyongyang had seen the effectiveness of such “decapitation attacks” as a serious warning.

Experts also said a similar operation against the North Korean regime would be far more difficult. North Korea is highly isolated, foreign access is tightly controlled and intelligence-gathering opportunities are severely limited.

(max)