North Korea has changed its constitution so its military is required to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike if Kim Jong-un is assassinated by a foreign adversary.

The change was made after Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and many of his closest advisers were killed in strikes at the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks against the regime in Tehran.

The revision was adopted at the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly, which opened on March 22 in Pyongyang. It was made public on Thursday in a briefing to senior members of the South Korean government by its National Intelligence Service (NIS).

According to the NIS briefing, Kim has command of the North’s nuclear forces, but the changes codify procedures for retaliatory attacks in the event that he is incapacitated or killed.

The revised Article 3 of the nuclear policy law states: “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks ... a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately.”

Prof Andrei Lankov, a Russian-born professor of history and international relations at Kookmin University in Seoul, said: “This may have been policy before, but it has added emphasis now it has been enshrined in the constitution.

“Iran was the wake-up call. North Korea saw the remarkable efficiency of the US-Israeli decapitation attacks, which immediately eliminated the greater part of the Iranian leadership, and they must now be terrified.”

An attack designed to eliminate Kim and his immediate circle would be far harder to carry out than the attacks in Iran.

North Korea’s borders are effectively sealed and the few foreign diplomats, aid workers and businesspeople from “friendly” nations who do enter the country are closely monitored, making the human intelligence that was critical to the success of the Iran attack impossible to obtain.

It has been reported that Israeli intelligence was able to pinpoint the location of the Iranian leaders after hacking into traffic cameras in Tehran – a tactic that cannot be replicated in Pyongyang because of its limited CCTV and tightly controlled intranet.

Kim is known to be fearful about his personal security and is always accompanied by bodyguards. He avoids flying and typically uses a heavily armoured train to travel.

Prof Lankov said: “Their biggest fear is going to be information from satellite technology. And, on balance, their concerns are not unfounded as taking out the leadership at the outset of any conflict is likely to be decisive.”

He believes that, with the military loyal to the leadership and viewing any attack on the nation as an existential threat, officers charged with launching a retaliatory nuclear attack would carry it out.

Prof Lankov added: “I see no likelihood of an attack coming from South Korea so any retaliation would be aimed at the United States.”

North Korea plans to deploy a new type of artillery along its southern border, state media said on Friday, potentially putting Seoul, the South Korean capital, within striking range, as Pyongyang deepens its hostility towards its neighbour.

Despite peace overtures from the South Korean government, the North has repeatedly cast Seoul as its main adversary, and recently removed longstanding references to Korean unification from its constitution.

Kim visited a munitions factory this week to review production of a “new-type 155-millimetre self-propelled gun-howitzer”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

According to KCNA, the weapon has a range exceeding 37 miles and will be deployed this year to a long-range artillery unit along the border with South Korea.

Central Seoul is about 35 miles from the border, and much of Gyeonggi province – South Korea’s most populous, home to key industrial hubs – would also fall within the new gun’s range.

The howitzer will “provide significant changes and advantages to our military’s ground operations”, KCNA reported Kim as saying.

North and South Korea remain technically at war: their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Source: TheTelegraph