Fresh provocation as Kim hails North Korea’s ‘powerful deterrent’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his nuclear weapons are a “powerful deterrent” that guarantee North Korea’s sovereignty, state media reported yesterday, hours after US president Donald Trump said “only one thing will work” in dealing with the isolated country.
Mr Trump did not make clear to what he was referring, but his comments seemed to be a further suggestion that military action was on his mind.
In a speech to a meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party on Saturday, a day before Mr Trump’s most recent comments, state media said Mr Kim had addressed the “complicated international situation”.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a “powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding the peace and security in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia”, Mr Kim said, referring to the “protracted nuclear threats of the US imperialists”.
In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, and may be fast advancing towards its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
North Korea is preparing to test-launch such a missile, a Russian politician who had recently returned from a visit to Pyongyang said on Friday.
Mr Trump has previously said the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary to protect itself and its allies.
The situation proved that North Korea’s policy of “byungjin”, meaning the parallel development of nuclear weapons and the economy was “absolutely right”, Mr Kim said.
“The national economy has grown … this year, despite the escalating sanctions,” said Mr Kim, referring to UN Security Council resolutions put in place to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The meeting also handled some personnel changes in North Korea’s ruling centre of power. Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, was made an alternate member of the politburo – the top decision-making body over which Mr Kim presides.
Her promotion indicates the 28-year-old has become a replacement for Kim Jongun’s aunt, Kim Kyong-hee, who was a key decision maker when former leader Kim Jongil was alive.
“It shows that her portfolio and writ is far more substantive than previously believed and it is a further consolidation of the Kim family’s power,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North website.
In January, the US treasury blacklisted Kim Yo-jong and other North Korean officials over “severe human rights abuses”.
Kim Jong-sik and Ri Pyongchol, two of the three men behind Mr Kim’s missile programme, were also promoted.
North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho was promoted to full vote-carrying member of the politburo.