North Korea Amends Nuclear Policy Laws To Ensure 'Right To Existence', Blames US For 'Provocation'

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un also urged officials to strengthen solidarity with nations standing against the US.

North Korea has adopted constitutional amendments in its nuclear laws as the country's leader pledged to boost production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called provocations by the United States, reported state media on Thursday. At a two-day meeting ending Wednesday, Pyongyang's rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly unanimously adopted the revision of the constitution to stipulate that the North develops "highly nuclear weapons to ensure" its "rights to existence" and to "deter war".

"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," said Kim Jong Un addressing the parliament. 

The North Korean leader called for "exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services." He also blamed the US saying it has gone to extremes in its military provocations with drills and the deployment of strategic assets in the region. 

Kim also urged officials to further extend solidarity with the nations standing against the US and denounced trilateral cooperation between US, South Korea, and Japan dubbing it as "Asian-version NATO". 

"This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity," he said.

Last week, Kim returned from a rare trip to Russia where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and agreed to boost military and economic cooperation. 

The rare Kim-Putin summit took place amid concerns by US and South Korea that the North could be seeking technological help for its nuclear and missile programs while Russia tries to acquire ammunition from Pyongyang to supplement its dwindling stocks for the war in Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Pyongyang against using nuclear weapon, as Seoul put on the first large-scale military parade in a decade, with weapons ranging from ballistic missiles to tanks rolling through Seoul in a show of force.