Kim Changes Constitution To Establish North Korea’s Nuclear Status

“The policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to build up nuclear forces has become permanent as the fundamental law of the state,” Kim Jong Un said in a speech to the People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, dashing hopes for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kim, combative as always, having just returned from Russia where he visited some defense industry plants, stressed that “no one can violate” the basic law of the state.

The statement was made on the day of the 67th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

In early September, North Korea announced that it had built a “tactical nuclear submarine.” During the solemn ceremony, Kim Jong Un said the new submarine was part of the “pursuit of nuclear weapons for the entire North Korean navy in the future.”

The topic of the North Korean nuclear arms race was at the center of the speech at the IAEA conference by Monsignor Daniel Pacho, who expressed the Holy See’s deep concern about the nuclear programs of Iran, North Korea, as well as the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

“The Holy See has no doubt that a world free of nuclear weapons is necessary and possible,” emphasized Monsignor Pacho, Deputy Secretary of the Multilateral Sector of the Section for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Secretariat of State. He regretted that Tehran “ceased its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action two years ago, seriously jeopardizing the IAEA’s verification and monitoring activities.” Regarding Pyongyang’s nuclear program, Monsignor Pacho expressed the Vatican’s appreciation for the “international community’s continued and patient efforts to resume negotiations on the nuclear program of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” a program that the prelate stressed “threatens the integrity of the nonproliferation regime.”