Tensions between North and South Korea are threatening to escalate: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister has now considered using nuclear weapons if South Korea dares to attack.
North Korea has threatened South Korea with nuclear weapons in the event of a pre-emptive attack. South Korea is not their country’s “main enemy,” said a statement by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong. However, should South Korea seek military confrontation, “our nuclear force will inevitably do its duty,” state news agency KCNA quoted Kim Yo Jong as saying on Tuesday. Although the nuclear forces served primarily as a deterrent, in the event of an attack the weapons would also be used “to destroy the opposing forces”.
It is the second sharp reaction from Pyongyang to statements by South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook on the combat capabilities of South Korea’s military. He said on Friday that South Korea’s military had missiles “capable of hitting any target in North Korea accurately and quickly if there were clear indications of a missile launch from North Korea.”
“Big Irreparable Mistake”
Kim Yo Jong then said on Sunday that South Korea should refrain from making such statements “if it wants to avert a catastrophe”. In her most recent statement, Kim called the comments an “unrecoverable huge mistake”. Threatening pre-emptive strikes against a “nuclear-weapon state” is a “fantastic daydream.”
Tensions between North and South Korea had increased massively in recent weeks with a whole series of missile tests by Pyongyang’s military. At the end of March, the North Korean military fired an ICBM for the first time since 2017.
North Korea has declared itself a nuclear power
Kim’s statements came amid rising tensions in the region. North Korea had recently alarmed its neighboring countries with a new test of an ICBM. UN resolutions ban the isolated country from testing any type of missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. North Korea has declared itself a nuclear power. However, its status is unclear because of the negotiations on its nuclear weapons program.
However, nuclear talks with the United States have not progressed for more than three years. South Korea and the US fear the country could prepare to test nuclear weapons for the first time since 2017 amid stalled negotiations.
