North Korea expected to strengthen its nuclear deterrent
North Korea expected to strengthen its nuclear deterrent
WRITTEN BY GABRIELA BERNAL
15 January 2021
While the rest of the world was distracted and paying attention to events unfolding in Washington DC, North Korea doubled-down on its assertive military posture by holding its Eighth Workers’ Party Congress and a massive military parade. According to North Korean media reports, the country aims to further develop its nuclear weapons program ‘and to complete the development of a super-large hydrogen bomb’.
Throughout the Congress, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un repeatedly mentioned the goal of modernising the nation’s nuclear force while emphasising North Korea’s status as a “nuclear weapons state”. During the Congress, he celebrated the nuclear weapons developments the country had achieved, saying the country now has “a perfect nuclear shield”.
Given that Kim Jong Un has kept quiet and away from the spotlight for most of 2020, the statements made during the Congress call for considerable analysis by the incoming US administration.
Kim made his plans very clear: “It is necessary to develop the nuclear technology to a higher level and make nuclear weapons smaller and lighter for more tactical uses” which would then allow the country to “continuously push ahead with the production of super-sized nuclear warheads”, North Korean media reported.
In addition, Kim stated that research is currently being conducted into “hypersonic gliding flight warheads for new-type ballistic rockets” and preparations to manufacture them are underway. He also mentioned that the “designing of unmanned striking equipment, means of reconnaissance and detection and military reconnaissance satellite" have been completed. These statements clearly point to North Korea not just increasing its military capabilities but actively seeking to acquire top-notch modern weapons in the near future.
New year — old story
Many may wonder why North Korea feels the need to continue expanding its military capabilities if it already possesses nuclear weapons. To that point, Kim Jong Un had the following to say: “The reality shows that only when we bolster up our national defence capability without a moment’s halt will we be able to contain the military threat from the US and achieve peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula”, according to North Korean media KCNA.
The North Korean leader also set the goal of attaining an advanced capability for making preemptive and retaliatory nuclear strikes by further raising the rate of precision “to strike and annihilate any strategic targets within a range of 15,000 km with pinpoint accuracy”. This point is especially alarming given that this range is longer than the distance between Pyongyang and Washington DC (roughly 11,000 km).
These statements prove that North Korea’s weapons development programs are far from simply defensive in nature. It also shows that, despite the various summits and talks between both countries’ leaders over the past few years, concrete and long-term progress on the nuclear issue has yet to be achieved.
In fact, when speaking of past US-DPRK summits, Kim said they “demonstrated to the world the strategic position of the DPRK”, and helped to ensure the “rapid rise of the external position of the DPRK”. Such remarks will likely affect the decisions Biden makes concerning whether to meet Kim Jong Un in person or not. The Democrats have long criticised Trump’s decision to meet with Kim on multiple occasions and such comments coming from North Korea only serve to prove them right.
Moreover, besides ICBMs with longer ranges, North Korean media reports about Kim’s comments during the Congress also included mention of plans to further develop submarines: “[the] goal [is] to possess a nuclear-powered submarine and an underwater-launch nuclear strategic weapon which will be of great importance in raising the long-range nuclear striking capability”. It was also added that the design of the new nuclear-powered submarine had been researched and was “in the stage of final examination”.
Keen to show their teeth
After the Congress, North Korea held a massive military parade on Thursday night to showcase some of the new weapons it had mentioned during the Congress meetings. A massive new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was displayed at the parade, which North Korean media is labelling ‘the world’s strongest weapon’. Besides the new SLBM, the parade also unveiled various short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), rockets, and other weapons. Notably, however, ICBMs were not present at this parade. This may signal some caution on Kim’s part not to overly antagonise the US.
Moreover, despite the parade and lengthy elaborations on his country’s military developments, the North Korean leader made sure to emphasise that these policies were defensive in nature and necessary to ensure the security of the nation. To that point, he reaffirmed “that the DPRK, as a responsible nuclear weapons state, will not misuse its nuclear weapons unless the aggressive hostile forces try to have recourse to their nuclear weapons against us”. Still, there is more than enough reason for the world to be concerned with North Korea’s recent military developments.
Kim near top of Biden’s agenda
According to a South Korean media report published on Thursday, the Biden administration is well aware of Kim Jong Un’s recent comments and aim to address the North Korea issue as one of the administration’s ‘top priorities’. This would indeed be a wise move, given the high stakes. This is no time for ‘strategic patience’, instead, Biden must act quickly to prevent North Korea from conducting any missile tests this year.
Despite the economic blow the country suffered in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic, the North Korean leadership has made it clear that it won’t be going easy on Biden and has no plans to scale back its dangerous military expansion program any time soon.
Given that Kim Jong Un has kept quiet and away from the spotlight for most of 2020, the statements made during the Congress call for considerable analysis by the incoming US administration. Biden and his team must formulate a clear strategy to deal with North Korea from the very beginning, lest they wait too long and miss the opportunity for diplomacy altogether.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Gabriela Bernal is a Korean affairs analyst and freelance writer based in Seoul, South Korea. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of North Korean Studies and her research focuses on North Korean foreign policy and inter-Korean relations. Image Credit: Flickr/Chris Price