Kim Jong-Un has stated that North Korea will not be the first to use Nuclear Weapons. Jong-Un recently declared this at the National Workers’ Party congress, the first congress meeting in more than 35 years.
North Korea has said it will strengthen self-defensive nuclear weapons capabilities in a decision made at congress, this is in defiance of United Nations resolutions. This decision exemplifies the position held by North Korea where they disavowed the use of nuclear weapons, unless their sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms.
Kim Jong-Un’s words are not likely to carry much weight given his track record on banned nuclear testing and long-range rocket launches. The statement may be aimed at building an alliance with China, who were upset with North Korea’s actions in its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and has earned substantial worldwide condemnation for their actions as well as tough United Nations sanctions.
A group of around 128 foreign journalists were invited to Pyongyang for the congress to cover its proceedings, however they were not granted access and some were asked to leave. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the main source covering the events and has quoted Kim Jong-Un as saying that North Korea “will sincerely fulfil its duties for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and work to realise the de-nuclearization of the world”. He also called for more talks with rival South Korea to reduce misunderstanding and distrust between them and urged the United States to stay away from inter-Korean issues.
North Korea had spent the past months resisting talks with the south and threatening attacks against it, however Kim Jong-Un spoke with a supposedly different tone at the conference, stating that “fundamentally improving” inter-Korean relations was an urgent matter for his government and that the South should “hold hands” with the North for unification, as reported by the KCNA.
Pardee Rand Graduate School senior defence analyst Bruce Bennett has suggested that North Korea seeking peace with the South to end the Korean war is “to lay the groundwork for the US to withdraw from the Korean peninsula, at which point the north would be able to attack the South”, suggesting that Kim’s comments to the Worker’s Party congress ought to be taken with a grain of salt.