Our Republic Will Not Use a Nuclear Weapon Unless … – Kim Jong-Un

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un told a rare
ruling party congress that his country was a
"responsible" nuclear weapons state, with a
no first-use policy and a commitment to
non-proliferation, state media reported
Sunday.
Speaking to thousands of delegates
gathered for the first Workers' Party
congress in more than 35 years, Kim also
announced a new five-year plan to boost the
impoverished country's moribund economy
and "revitalise" people's lifestyles.
His remarks on Saturday, the second day of
the congress, came amid growing concerns
that the North might be on the verge of
conducting a fifth nuclear test.
Kim had opened the congress with a
defiant
defence of the nuclear weapons programme,
praising the "magnificent... and thrilling" test
of what Pyongyang claimed was a powerful
hydrogen bomb on January 6.
But his report to the conclave on Saturday
stressed that North Korea was also a
"responsible nuclear weapons state" with an
arsenal built for deterrence.
"Our republic will not use a nuclear weapon
unless its sovereignty is encroached upon
by any aggressive hostile forces with
nukes," he said, according to an English
translation of his speech by the North's
official KCNA news agency.
That formula would appear to allow for the
use of nuclear weapons against a
conventional attack by a nuclear power, but
the Korean-language version made it clear
that the scenario involved an actual nuclear
attack.
- Non-proliferation pledge -
Kim also vowed that Pyongyang would
"faithfully fulfil" its non-proliferation
obligations and push for global
denuclearisation.
North Korea withdrew from the global Non-
proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 -- the first
signatory country to ever do so.
Pyongyang's nuclear weapons doctrine has
always been a complex mix of self-defence,
deterrence and threat.
At the time of its first nuclear test in 2006,
North Korea stressed that it would "never
use nuclear weapons first".
And when it codified its nuclear programme
in North Korea law in April 2013, it stated
that nuclear weapons could only be used to
repel invasion or attack by another nuclear
power.
But in recent years, and especially in the
wake of tough UN sanctions imposed over
its fourth test in January, it has issued
repeated warnings of pre-emptive nuclear
strikes against South Korea and the United
States.
"The survival of the ruling Kim family is
intimately linked to nuclear arms because
they help legitimise Kim Jong-Un's
hereditary rule and keep his foreign foes at
bay," said Alexandre Mansourov, an expert
on North Korean security issues.
The party congress is widely seen as Kim's
formal "coronation" as supreme leader, more
than four years after he took power
following the death of his father, late ruler
Kim Jong-Il, in December 2011.
State television, in a special broadcast
Sunday of his speech the previous day,
showed Kim speaking in front of a huge
party emblem -- a hammer, sickle and
calligraphy brush symbolising factory
workers, farmers and intellectuals.
Delegates, some in sober business suits and
others in uniform with rows of medals,
greeted his remarks with thunderous
applause.
- Economic plan -
On the economic front, Kim unveiled a five-
year economic plan to improve efficiency
and output across key sectors, with a
particular emphasis on energy.
But his report offered little in the way of
specific policy initiatives or numerical
targets.
"The goal ... is to revitalise people's overall
livelihoods and .... lay the foundation for a
sustainable improvement of the nation's
economy," Kim said.
Kim's rule has been associated with his
"byungjin" policy of pursuing nuclear
weapons in tandem with economic
development.
Some analysts had suggested Kim might use
the congress to signal a tilt towards the
economic side of the equation.
In his address, Kim also said North Korea
would seek to improve and normalise
relations with previously "hostile" countries.
There has been speculation that, in the
wake of the party congress, Pyongyang
might renew its push for talks with
Washington.
US and North Korean officials have held a
number of informal discussions in neutral
venues in recent years, but Washington and
Seoul insist Pyongyang must make tangible
steps towards denuclearisation before any
substantive dialogue can begin.
Kim has made it clear that the future of the
North's nuclear weapons programme is non-
negotiable.
Concern that the North might be readying a
fifth nuclear test was fuelled Saturday by
recent satellite imagery of activity at the
Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast
of the country.