DPRK incorporates nuclear force policy into constitution

SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has incorporated the state nuclear force policy that was codified a year ago into the country's constitution, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday.

At a Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) session held from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, an amendment on supplementing the state nuclear force policy to the DPRK constitution was unanimously adopted.

The SPA Standing Committee chairman Choe Ryong Hae said the move was designed to stipulate the position of the nuclear force in the national defense and the principle of state activities on the building of the nuclear force in the constitution, said KCNA.

In an address to the SPA session, Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, underscored the "deep and weighty significance" of the constitutional amendment in ensuring the country's right to existence and development, deterring war and protecting regional and global peace by developing nuclear weapons at a higher level, KCNA said.

In justifying the constitutional move, Kim accused the United States of "frequently revising the aggression war scenario," maximizing nuclear war threats to the DPRK, KCNA said.

Kim also lashed out at the trilateral military alliance between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea, calling it the "Asian-version NATO" that poses "the worst actual threat," the report said.

In addition, Kim emphasized the importance of proactively conducting foreign policy and said the DPRK should further promote solidarity with the nations standing up against "the United States and West's strategy for hegemony."