SEOUL, South Korea—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media reported Friday, after the South’s leader warned that Kim’s regime would collapse if he attempted to use nuclear arms.
The exchange of such rhetoric between the rival Koreas is nothing new, but the latest comments come during heightened animosities over the North’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continuation of missile tests. Next week, observers say North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament is expected to constitutionally declare a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to formally reject reconciliation with South Korea and codify new national borders.
Kim’s statement was a response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s speech at his country’s Armed Forces Day on Tuesday. Unveiling South Korea’s most powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile and other conventional weapons that could target North Korea, Yoon said the day that North Korea tries to use nuclear weapons would be the end of the Kim government because Kim would face “the resolute and overwhelming response” of the South Korean-US alliance.
Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Kim has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. But many foreign experts say it’s still unlikely that he would use his nuclear arms first because his military is outmatched by the US and its allied forces. In July, South Korea and the US signed a defense guideline on integrating South Korea’s conventional capabilities with the US nuclear forces to better deal with North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.
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