Nuclear Threats, Territorial Disputes Fuel Tensions Between Koreas

The Korean peninsula is once again teetering on the brink of crisis, with escalating rhetoric and actions from both sides. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has issued a chilling threat to use nuclear weapons and permanently destroy South Korea if provoked, The Associated Press reports.

This comes in response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s warning that Kim’s regime would face collapse if it attempted to use nuclear arms.

This exchange of threats is not new, but the latest comments come amid heightened tensions surrounding North Korea’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continued missile tests. Observers anticipate that North Korea’s parliament will next week formally declare a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula, effectively rejecting reconciliation with South Korea and codifying new national borders.

During a visit to a special operations forces unit on Wednesday, Kim declared that his military would “use without hesitation all the offensive forces it possesses, including nuclear weapons” if South Korea encroached upon North Korean sovereignty, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He went on to say that such an action would render “the permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea…impossible.”

Kim’s threat was a direct response to President Yoon’s speech at South Korea’s Armed Forces Day on Tuesday. Yoon, showcasing South Korea’s advanced Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile and other conventional weapons capable of targeting North Korea, stated that the day North Korea used nuclear weapons would mark the end of the Kim government.

Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, joined the chorus of criticism on Thursday, ridiculing South Korea’s demonstration of the Hyunmoo-5 missile, claiming it could not counter North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Kim has repeatedly threatened preemptive nuclear strikes. This aggressive stance, coupled with North Korea’s recent actions, has heightened anxieties in South Korea, which possesses no nuclear weapons.

Adding to the volatile situation, Kim has also called for rewriting North Korea’s constitution to eliminate the idea of peaceful unification and solidify South Korea as an “invariable principal enemy.” He also rejected the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a western sea boundary established after the Korean War, calling for a redefined territorial definition that encroaches into waters currently controlled by South Korea.

Further escalating tensions, the South Korean military reported on Friday that North Korea launched more balloons carrying trash across the border into South Korea. This follows thousands of similar incidents since late May, prompting South Korea to resume anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border.

Communication channels between the two Koreas have been severed since 2019, and there is no clear path toward de-escalation.