(Reuters)
SEOUL, March 24- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would permanently strengthen its nuclear forces and treat South Korea as its most hostile state, as he set out policy priorities in a speech to parliament, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security, regional stability and economic development.
He rejected the idea that nuclear disarmament could be exchanged for economic benefits or security guarantees, saying North Korea had already proven that maintaining nuclear forces while pursuing development was the correct strategic choice.
“The current world reality, where the dignity and rights of sovereign states are mercilessly violated by unilateral force and violence, clearly teaches what the true guarantee of a state’s existence and peace is,” Kim said in the address on Monday to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the communist-run country’s rubber-stamp legislature.
Nuclear weapons had deterred war and allowed the state to focus resources on economic growth, construction and living standards, he added.
Analysts in South Korea said the comments amounted to an indirect critique of U.S. military action against Iran.
“These circumstances have reinforced Pyongyang’s long-standing argument that nuclear weapons are essential to deter external intervention and safeguard regime survival,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies.
Kim further accused the United States and its allies of destabilising the region by deploying strategic nuclear assets near the Korean peninsula, but said North Korea no longer viewed itself as a country under threat and possessed the power to threaten others if necessary.
