North Korea's Kim stresses nuclear weapons, labels South 'most hostile state' in key policy speech

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, greets former chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly Choe Ryong-hae on March 23 on the second day of the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly. [NEWS1]

 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Pyongyang would treat South Korea as its “most hostile state," a move seen as reflecting the regime's intention to reject and disregard ties with South Korea in both rhetoric and action.
 
Based on Kim’s “two hostile states” doctrine, the remark on Monday was seen as another sign that he intends to define inter-Korean relations as one of “hostile coexistence” and completely scrap any ideological solidarity or special ethnic bond with the South, according to experts.
 

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North Korea stated it discussed constitutional revisions, including renaming the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but did not disclose whether the changes reflected the “two hostile states” doctrine.  
 
Analysts say the omission appears to be aimed at maximizing strategic ambiguity by heightening uncertainty and allowing Pyongyang to flexibly adjust its scope of action in response to future developments.
 
Kim on Monday declared a struggle against South Korea as an enemy in a policy speech on the second day of the newly convened Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), the country's rubber-stamp parliament, according to Tuesday’s Rodong Sinmun.
 
The meeting opened on Sunday and closed after a two-day schedule. In the speech, Kim emphasized the irreversibility of North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state and the achievements of the regime's policy of economic self-reliance backed by nuclear force.
 
“The government of the republic will continue to further cement its status as a nuclear weapons state and aggressively wage a struggle against the enemy to crush all provocations against the republic by hostile forces,” Kim said of South Korea. “Any South Korean act that tampers with our republic will be made to pay mercilessly without the slightest consideration or hesitation.”
 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a policy speech on March 23 during the second day of the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly. [NEWS1]

 
The remarks were seen as an extension of the hostile line toward South Korea that Kim has maintained since he defined inter-Korean relations as those of “two hostile states” at the year-end plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea in 2023. They suggested he sees the South as an “enemy” and is willing to launch offensive military action when necessary.
 
At the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in February, Kim again defined the South as a “thoroughly hostile state” and a “permanent enemy.”
 
“It appears to be a declaration that goes beyond a strategy of dealing with Washington while shutting out Seoul and instead outright denies South Korea’s very existence,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University. “South Korea is no longer a compatriot to North Korea but a ‘hostile entity’ that can be struck at any time under both international and domestic law, and that has now been made official.”
 
Kim cited the achievement of “nuclear weapons state status” as the greatest accomplishment during the 14th SPA term. “The reality today clearly proves how just our state’s strategic choice and decision were to reject the enemies’ sweet talk and make our possession of nuclear weapons irreversible and permanent,” he said.
 
“The solid construction of the nuclear shield has guaranteed not only the military and security sectors but also development in all areas of the country, including the economy and culture, and improvements in people’s livelihoods,” Kim said. “There may be various alternatives for guaranteeing national security and regional peace and stability, but the surest, most permanent and most reliable option is to hold fast to the most powerful means of force, beyond anyone’s reach.”
 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, meets newly appointed Cabinet members and deputies to the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly on March 23 at the Pyongyang Assembly Hall, and poses for a commemorative photo. [NEWS1]

 
“He spent a great deal of time explaining at length that advancing nuclear weapons was the right course,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “The situations in Iran and Venezuela appear to have had a considerable impact on Kim.”
 
In fact, Kim highlighted the North's urge to fight back against any challenges to its sovereignty.
 
“Whether our adversaries choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence, that is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice,” Kim said. “In line with the mission assigned by the republic’s Constitution and the demands of the line of strengthening the state’s nuclear armed forces, we will further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”
 
On the United States, Kim claimed that “although the United States is committing state terror and acts of aggression all over the world, its arrogant coercion and recklessness [...] are instead igniting anti-American sentiment and hatred among independent forces and driving them toward unity and resistance.” He added that “the building of a fair and just multipolar world will be pushed forward more forcefully.”
 
“We should break from the diplomatic practices of the past that were based on old standards and outdated yardsticks and deploy diplomatic tactics and external activities commensurate with our new national stature and prestige,” Kim said, signaling that Pyongyang would take a more aggressive approach on the diplomatic stage.  
 
Kim did not, however, directly mention or criticize U.S. President Donald Trump by name.
 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, and senior officials watch a performance by artists on March 23 to celebrate the successful first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly. [NEWS1]

 
North Korea also announced through the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday afternoon that Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko would visit Pyongyang from Wednesday to Thursday at Kim’s invitation. The move was seen as an attempt to further consolidate North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state in the diplomatic arena by leaning on friendly countries relatively receptive to its nuclear status.
 
Kim also acknowledged shortages of electricity and coal as he highlighted economic achievements. “At present, the sectors facing the greatest strain in balancing supply and demand are electricity and coal,” he said.
 
Earlier, North Korea had delayed the election for more than two years after the five-year terms of the 14th SPA deputies expired, before electing members of the 15th SPA on March 15, seven years after the previous vote. Analysts say the move was intended to align the five-year cycles of the Workers' Party Congress and the SPA so that decisions made at the party congress could be codified into law.
 
Kim announced that the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly reflected the essential requirements of national development by revising and supplementing parts of the republic’s Constitution, saying that the assembly adopted laws on carrying out the next five-year plan presented at the party’s Ninth Congress and on this year’s state budget.
 
“It also served to showcase the completion of a ‘party-state integration’ system in which party decisions are carried out through state organs by aligning the five-year terms of the Workers' Party Congress and the Supreme People’s Assembly,” Lim said.


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]