- Preamble to document says rogue state is ‘invincible’
- Claim will heighten tension in international community
North Korea’s new constitution proclaims the rogue state’s position as a nuclear-armed nation, analysts said today.
An official website seen last night released the text of the constitution following its revision during a parliamentary session on April 13.
The preamble says: ‘National Defence Commission chairman Kim Jong-Il turned our fatherland into an invincible state of political ideology, a nuclear-armed state and an indomitable military power, paving the ground for the construction of a strong and prosperous nation.’
Constitution claim: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, with his military advisers Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae, center, and Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho
The text, which will further complicate international efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon atomic weapons, was carried by the ‘Naenara’ (My Nation) website.
The previous constitution, last revised on April 9, 2010, did not carry the term ‘nuclear-armed state’.
Following Kim Jong-Il’s death last December, the country revised the charter to consecrate achievements of the late leader, who was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-Un.
The North has been developing nuclear weapons for decades. Its official position has been that it needs them for self-defence against a U.S. nuclear threat, but that it is willing in principle to scrap the atomic weaponry.
Under a September 2005 deal reached during six-nation negotiations, Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear programmes in return for economic and diplomatic benefits and security guarantees.
A satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, 62 miles north of Pyongyang, taken in 2002 where North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test in 2006
In 2002, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it would immediately end a freeze on its nuclear power plant in response to an allied decision to suspend oil aid to Pyongyang
But six-party talks on implementing the deal have been stalled since December 2008. The North has staged two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
Cheon Sung-Whun of the state Korea Institute for National Unification said: ‘This makes it clear that the North has little intention of giving up nuclear programmes under any circumstances.
‘If there is a demand at the negotiation table to give up nuclear weapons, the North Koreans would say it would be a breach of the constitution,’ he said.
Past: The launch of the Unha-2 rocket, in April 2009, in North Korea which Pyongyang says put the experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 into orbit
A South Korean woman watches a TV news report showing a computer generated image of North Korea’s long-range rocket at Seoul train station in Seoul, South Korea
NORTH KOREA’S BID TO GO NUCLEAR
2002 – North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it would immediately end a freeze on its nuclear power plant in response to an allied decision to suspend oil aid to Pyongyang.
2003 – North Korea withdraws from the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As a result the six-party talks aim to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns.
2006 – North Korea reveals it has tested its first long range missiles in Punggye-r, in the north-east of the country.
2007 – After five rounds of talks there is little progress in the six-party group, until the third phase of the fifth round when North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities in exchange for fuel aid.
2009 – Continued international criticism of the 2006 long-range rocket launch prompts Pyongyang to walk away from nuclear disarmament negotiations and, weeks later, conduct its second nuclear test.
2011 – Longtime leader and state founder Kim Jong Il dies, and is replaced by his son Kim Jong Un.
2012 – North Korea suffers spectacular failure of its latest long-range missile, which blew up moments after launch.
North Korea has long been in confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over its nuclear and missile programmes.
Its April 13 long-range rocket launch, purportedly a peaceful mission to put a satellite into orbit, further dimmed prospects for a diplomatic settlement.
The launch was decried internationally as a banned test of missile technology that also could be used to send an intercontinental ballistic missile topped with a nuclear warhead.
The rocket broke into pieces shortly after liftoff.
The revised constitution ‘is certainly bad news for participants in the six-party talks’, said Professor Kim Keun-Sik at Kyungnam University in Changwon.
‘It will make it harder to persuade the North to give up nuclear weapons through diplomacy.’
But Kim cautioned against reading too much into what was intended as part of a eulogy for Kim Jong-Il.
‘The North has been touting its nuclear status as one of the key achievements accredited to the late leader and the new constitution factors this in,’ he said.
‘This can hardly be interpreted as a message that it will stick to its nuclear weapons no matter what.’
Kim also said the North’s constitution can easily be amended once its ruler decides to do so, noting it was revised twice in as many years.
The six-party talks which began in 2003 are chaired by China and also include the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan.
