“If the command and control system of the national nuclear force is in danger of being attacked by hostile forces, a nuclear strike is carried out automatically and immediately,” said the law, according to the state agency KCNA.
With this new text, “our country’s status as a nuclear-weapon state has become irreversible,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said, according to KCNA.
This announcement comes in a context of very tense inter-Korean relations, Pyongyang accusing Seoul of being responsible for the recent epidemic of Covid-19 which hit the country while threatening its neighbor with reprisals.
North Korea has conducted a series of tests this year despite sanctions, including that of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017.
US and South Korean officials have repeatedly warned that the North is preparing to conduct what would become its seventh nuclear test.
