As we are gathered to remember comrade Kim Jong Il it is important for us to study DPR Korea’s great achievements in the work of national defence. Indeed Kim Jong Il’s whole life was associated with the Songun (army-first) revolutionary leadership which began when he gave guidance to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army.
The issue of the DPRK’s successful defence upbuilding is one that has come into sharp focus. On the 15th of December, the Academy of Defence Science tested a high-thrust solid-fuel motor with a thrust of 140tf, the first of its kind in the country, at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. This important test has provided a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system.
This year has seen truly amazing and phenomenal advances in DPRK missile technology. The imperialists and their south Korean puppets have complained that the DPRK has carried out approximately 60 or so missile tests during the past year and have clamoured for more UN sanctions while imposing their own unilateral sanctions.
On the 24th of March, the new type of ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was tested. The missile, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6 248.5 km and flew a distance of 1 090 km for 4,052s before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea. This was the first time in 5 years that the DPRK tested an ICBM, though tests of medium and short-range missiles had been carried out in the intervening period.
On the 18th of November in the presence of Kim Jong Un, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, the Hwasong Pho 17 ICBM was successfully tested at Pyongyang International Airport . The Hwasong Pho 17 reached a maximum altitude of 6,040.9 km and flew a distance of 999.2 km for 4,135s before accurately landing on the preset area in the open waters of the East Sea of Korea.
Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his daughter and his wife comrade Ri Sol Ju and comrade Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK. The presence of the young daughter of the Korean leader symbolised the fact that the DPRK’s nukes guarantee the future of the DPRK’s children.
The new type Hwasong-pho 17 ICBM has the ability to strike the US mainland. Thus it greatly strengthens and augments the DPRK's self-defensive potential.
The DPRK’s ballistic missile tests fully reflect the will of the leadership of the Workers Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK to consistently bolster the national defence capacity of the DPRK in line with the decisions made by the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea. Earlier in 2022, on 6th January the Political Bureau of the WPK agreed to resume “temporarily suspended activities” meaning ICBM and nuclear tests, because ‘‘all the facts clearly prove once again that the hostile policy towards the DPRK will exist in the future as long as there is the hostile entity of U.S. imperialism.”.
Unlike some countries both past and present, the DPRK saw through the nature of US imperialism. After all, it was US imperialism that divided Korea in 1945 and started the Korean war. The DPRK‘s policy is absolutely correct. A few years ago, when there were summits between the DPRK and the US and also the DPRK and south Korea , some people said that the DPRK would unilaterally disarm itself and even open a Mcdonald's in Pyongyang. Nearly 5 years on, not a single nuke or ICBM has been dismantled by the DPRK and there is no McDonalds in Pyongyang and the DPRK is consolidating its national defence capabilities. Also, the DPRK is raising militant anti-US slogans and intensifying anti-US imperialist education.
It is worth mentioning Cuba here as this year also saw the 60th anniversary of Khruschov’s shameful capitulation during the Cuban Missile Crisis which saw the USSR kneel down before the US imperialists and agree to withdraw their missiles within 6 days and sell out Cuba by allowing UN inspections of Cuba. The DPRK’s independent and militant anti-imperialist stance contrasts with that of the former Soviet Union.
The DPRK‘s correct nuclear policy has now been fully enshrined in law and is a permanent state policy of the DPRK . On the 8th of September this year, the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly passed the historic law On The State Policy On The Nuclear Forces which fully legalised the DPRK’s status as a nuclear power.
The new law defines the mission of the DPRK nuclear forces as being “ to deter a war by making hostile forces have a clear understanding of the fact that the military confrontation with the DPRK brings about ruin and give up attempts at aggression and attack.”
According to the new law, the DPRK ‘s use of nuclear forces can only occur under certain situations, these are defined as follows:
• ‘In case an attack by nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction was launched or drew near is judged’
• ‘In case a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organisation of the state's nuclear forces was launched or drew near is judged’
• ‘In case a fatal military attack against important strategic objects of the state was launched or drew near is judged’
• ‘In case the need for operation for preventing the expansion and protraction of a war and taking the initiative in the war in contingency is inevitably raised.”
Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly pointed out that “The legalisation of the policy of the nuclear forces in accordance with the unanimous desire and iron will of all the people is of tremendous significance. With this, the position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.”
Needless to say, the enemies of People’s Korea such as the Americans and their south Korean puppets, as well as the vassal states of the US, are not happy about this.
Even CND has chimed in with the clamour of the US imperialists and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by saying that the DPRK’s Law on Nuclear Forces is a “very worrying development”. We answer this ‘criticism ‘ as follows:
Firstly, the DPRK’S new law on nuclear forces does not make explicit reference to ‘first strikes’ or ‘pre-emptive strikes’, although it is implied that under certain very limited situations, these may be carried out. There is no blank cheque for a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the DPRK but rather the DPRK’s nuclear weapons are a last resort and a deterrent.
Secondly, the US has a nuclear first-strike policy so why shouldn’t the DPRK have one? Why do some people think the imperialists and big countries should have a monopoly on a nuclear first strike? Surely it is only fair that the DPRK should match the US policy of a nuclear first strike with its own?
Thirdly, it is the US that first developed nuclear weapons and actually used them against a non-nuclear state when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 . Moreover, the US considered a nuclear first strike against the DPRK during the Korean war of 1950-1953 , during the “Pueblo Incident ‘ of 1968 and the Panmunjom incident of 1976 and other occasions. The US designated the DPRK a target of a US nuclear first strike in 2002. The US stationed 1,000 nuclear weapons in south Korea , at one point the number reached 1,700. Supposedly the US withdrew these weapons in the 1990s, however the US refused to accept international inspections to confirm this and later stated it would ‘neither confirm nor deny ‘ the existence of its nuclear weapons in south Korea.
Many believe that US nuclear weapons are still in south Korea. What is beyond all doubt is that the US and south Korea have on numerous occasions staged nuclear war exercises against the DPRK and US nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers have been in Korean waters as well US nuclear bombers overflying the Korean peninsula.
Fourthly, Korea was divided by the US in 1945 and the DPRK was invaded by the US imperialists in 1950. At least 1.2 million civilians were killed and the country was completely devastated. The DPRK’s nuclear deterrent will ensure this does not happen again.
Fifthly, is the DPRK supposed to fold its arms and just sit and wait to be invaded by the US imperialists?
Sixth, the experience of the 1962 Caribbean crisis in which the USSR pulled its missiles out of Cuba and allowed UN inspections after only 6 days and without consulting the Cuban leadership shows that a small country cannot rely on a big country for its defence. Moreover recent events this year show that some big countries may not be such efficient allies as some may imagine. These countries have their own problems and internal contradictions so it would be unwise for the DPRK to rely on them.
Seventh, the DPRK did all that it could to work towards a peaceful settlement of DPRK-US relations and issues on the Korean peninsula by holding two summits and one meeting with US president Trump as well as three Inter-Korean summits. It should be added that the DPRK carried out its first nuclear test 59 years after the US first introduced nuclear weapons into south Korea in violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
In conclusion, we would point out that the DPRK’s Law on the State Policy of Nuclear Forces is about defending the DPRK’s independence and territorial integrity as well as the socialist system of the DPRK. It is regrettable that some who style themselves as ‘progressives ‘ or ‘leftists ‘ share the desire of the imperialists for the dismantling of the socialist system of the DPRK or for ‘reforms ‘ and ‘opening up ‘.
Bravo to People's Korea for declaring itself a permanent nuclear weapons state. The DPRK has rejected all attempts to disarm it and push it down a certain path. The DPRK also rejected so-called aid from south Korea which was conditional on the DPRK unilaterally disarming itself. The DPRK also rejected imperialist aid when the Covid 19 epidemic arose in the DPRK.
The DPRK’s nuclear policy and its efforts to build up the national defence capabilities are its independent right to do so which no one from whatever quarter; whether they are the imperialists or their fake left fellow travellers should try to interfere with. The great advances in the DPRK‘s defence abilities which are surprising to its enemies are a sure guarantee for the independence of the country that comrade Kim Jong Il worked hard all his life to safeguard and also guarantee the existence of the people-centred socialist system that is the legacy of comrade Kim Jong Il as well as the cradle of happiness for the Korean people
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