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 attempts 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 the 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.
During a visit to a special operation forces unit on Wednesday, Kim said his military “would use without hesitation all the offensive forces it possesses, including nuclear weapons,†if South Korea attempts to use armed forces encroaching upon the sovereignty of North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“If such a situation comes, the permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea would be impossible,†Kim said, using South Korea’s official name.
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 ballistic missile and other 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-U.S. alliance.
Kim responded that Yoon’s address fully betrayed his “bellicose temerity†and showed “the security uneasiness and irritating psychology of the puppet forces.â€
In a derisive comment, Kim called Yoon "an abnormal man,†saying that “the puppet Yoon bragged about an overwhelming counteraction of military muscle at the doorstep of a state that possesses nuclear weapons.â€
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 uses nukes first because his military is outmatched by the U.S. and its allied forces. In July, South Korea and the U.S. signed a defense guideline on integrating South Korea's conventional capabilities with the U.S. nuclear forces to better deal with North Korea's advancing nuclear program. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.
Animosities between the Koreas are at the worst point in years with Kim's provocative run of missile tests and the South Korean-U.S. military exercises intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. All communication channels and exchange programs between the rivals remain stalled since 2019, when a broader U.S.-North Korea diplomacy on ending the North's nuclear program collapsed.
In January, Kim called for rewriting North Korea’s constitution to eliminate the idea of a peaceful unification between the war-divided countries and to cement the South as an “invariable principal enemy.â€
He also reiterated that his country does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, a western sea boundary that was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. He called for the new constitution to include a clear definition of the North’s territories. North Korea has traditionally insisted upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters currently controlled by South Korea.
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A Manitoba man convicted of murder 50 years ago has been acquitted. Clarence Woodhouse was found guilty in 1974 of fatally beating and stabbing a restaurant worker in downtown Winnipeg.
When an Ontario doctor refused to sign off on a mammogram for 38-year-old Sidra Lone, the mother of four says she was left with no choice but to lie.
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One person is dead after a floatplane carrying three people crashed Wednesday evening in a remote inlet on British Columbia's central coast.
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WestJet has changed its operations at the Lethbridge Airport, and it means there's now only a single daily flight from Lethbridge to Calgary, down from three flights a day, as offered previously.
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A man charged with first-degree murder in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., doesn't have to sit in the prisoner's box when his trial begins next month, a judge with the Superior Court of Justice has ruled.
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Aiming to bolster public trust and accountability – and help with investigations -- police in Sault Ste. Marie have equipped their vehicles with cameras.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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