North Korea threatens to use nuclear weapons to ‘eliminate’ South Korea
North Korea has threatened to use nuclear weapons to "eliminate" the South Korean army if it launches a pre-emptive strike, in the latest spike in tensions ahead of the inauguration of Yoon Suk-yeol, the South’s hawkish incoming president.
The threat follows an unprecedented flurry of North Korean weapons tests this year, including a suspected new hypersonic missile and intercontinental ballistic missile, that the United States and its allies say are destabilising regional security.
The warning from Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong, was her second angry rebuke in three days to a statement last week by the South’s defence chief that Seoul had the "the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea when there are clear signs of North's missile launch".
Kim initially denounced Suh Wook as a “confrontation maniac,” guilty of “reckless” rhetoric, but her latest outburst, carried by state media on Tuesday, stressed his comments were a “very big mistake,” making it clear that military options were on the table if Pyongyang came under fire.
"In case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty," said Ms Kim, who is one of her brother’s most trusted advisors.
She said the "primary mission" for her country's nuclear forces was to act as a deterrent, but if an armed conflict were to break out, such weapons will be used for "eliminating the enemy's armed forces at a strike".
As a result of this "dreadful attack", South Korean forces will face a "miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin", she said.
Despite her fiery rhetoric, Ms Kim said “we oppose war,” acknowledging that it would make the whole of Korea suffer and adding that “we will not fire even a single bullet or shell toward South Korea” if unprovoked.
But the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests have raised the temperature on the Korean Peninsula amid frozen nuclear disarmament talks and ahead of the May 10 inauguration of President-elect Yoon, who has vowed to take a more hardline stance towards Pyongyang and boost ties with the US.
Kim Jong-un’s determined push to develop the jumbo Hwasong-17 ICBM, capable of reaching the US with multiple warheads, and signs that Pyongyang may be preparing for a new underground nuclear test, has alarmed Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea imposed a moratorium on its long-range and nuclear tests in 2018 during a diplomatic détente with the South and summits between Kim and Donald Trump, then US president, but talks collapsed in 2019 and did not resume.
Instead, a new arms race may be looming in the Indo-Pacific.
On Monday, Nobuo Kishi, Japan’s defence minister, said he would request a larger annual budget to “drastically” strengthen defence capabilities to deal with China’s intensifying military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and renewed missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.
South Korea also reported last week it had successfully test-fired a solid-fuel space rocket as it seeks to shore up its own defences.
President-elect Yoon’s foreign policy and security advisors are visiting the US this week to seek a summit as early as May with President Joe Biden to coordinate efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions.
During his presidential campaign, Mr Yoon vowed to ramp up military capabilities to counter Pyongyang’s threats, including by buying an additional new THAAD US missile defence system, but he did not rule out talks if the North makes tangible progress towards denuclearisation.
North Korea has a large number of "theatre-class" missiles with a desire to develop a "credible" missile threat, Admiral Charles Richard, head of the US Strategic Command, will warn the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday.
