NKorea's Kim Threatens to Destroy South10/04 06:05

   

   SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use 
nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media 
reported Friday, after the South's leader warned that Kim's regime would 
collapse if he attempted to use nuclear arms.

   The exchange of such rhetoric between the rival Koreas is nothing new, but 
the latest comments come during heightened animosities over the North's recent 
disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continuation of missile tests. Next 
week, observers say North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament is expected to 
constitutionally declare a hostile "two-state" system on the Korean Peninsula 
to formally reject reconciliation with South Korea and codify new national 
borders.

   During a visit to a special operation forces unit on Wednesday, Kim said his 
military "would use without hesitation all the offensive forces it possesses, 
including nuclear weapons," if South Korea attempts to use armed forces 
encroaching upon the sovereignty of North Korea, according to the North's 
official Korean Central News Agency.

   "If such a situation comes, the permanent existence of Seoul and the 
Republic of Korea would be impossible," Kim said, using South Korea's official 
name.

   Kim's statement was a response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's 
speech at his country's Armed Forces Day on Tuesday. Unveiling South Korea's 
most powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile and other conventional weapons that 
could target North Korea, Yoon said the day that North Korea tries to use 
nuclear weapons would be the end of the Kim government because Kim would face 
"the resolute and overwhelming response" of the South Korean-U.S. alliance.

   Kim responded that Yoon's address fully betrayed his "bellicose temerity" 
and showed "the security uneasiness and irritating psychology of the puppet 
forces."

   In a derisive comment, Kim called Yoon "an abnormal man," saying that "the 
puppet Yoon bragged about an overwhelming counteraction of military muscle at 
the doorstep of a state that possesses nuclear weapons." On Thursday, Kim's 
sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, also ridiculed South Korea's 
showcasing of the Hyunmoo-5 missile, saying there there's no way for South 
Korea to counter the North Korea's nuclear forces with conventional weapons.

   Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Kim has repeatedly 
threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. But many foreign experts say 
it's still unlikely that he would use his nuclear arms first because his 
military is outmatched by the U.S. and its allied forces. In July, South Korea 
and the U.S. signed a defense guideline on integrating South Korea's 
conventional capabilities with the U.S. nuclear forces to better deal with 
North Korea's advancing nuclear program. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.

   Animosities between the Koreas are at the worst point in years with Kim's 
provocative run of missile tests and the South Korean-U.S. military exercises 
intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. All communication channels and exchange 
programs between the rivals remain stalled since 2019, when a broader 
U.S.-North Korea diplomacy on ending the North's nuclear program collapsed.

   In January, Kim called for rewriting North Korea's constitution to eliminate 
the idea of a peaceful unification between the war-divided countries and to 
cement the South as an "invariable principal enemy."

   He also reiterated that his country does not recognize the Northern Limit 
Line, a western sea boundary that was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the 
end of the 1950-53 Korean War. He called for the new constitution to include a 
clear definition of the North's territories. North Korea has traditionally 
insisted upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters currently 
controlled by South Korea.

   On Friday, South Korea's military said North Korea was again flying balloons 
likely carrying trash across the border into South Korea. Since late May, North 
Korea has launched thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons toward South Korea, 
prompting South Korea to resume anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker 
broadcasts at border areas.