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This photo, released by North Korea’s state-run Korea Central News Agency, shows the Hwasong-17 ICBM being launched from an airfield in Sunan, near Pyongyang, on Nov. 18. (KCNA/Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stated Friday, the day of the test launch of the new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), that Pyongyang would “react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation.” On the same day, President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea stated that strong measures against North Korean threats would be taken, putting the Korean Peninsula in a state of high tension.

The official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), Rodong Sinmun, reported on Saturday that Kim Jong-un observed the launch of the “new-type” Hwasong-17 at Pyongyang International Airport and stated that the North’s “Party and government should clearly demonstrate their strongest will to retaliate the hysteric aggression war drills by the enemies seeking to destroy peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region.”

Kim remarked that Pyongyang will “react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation,” according to the paper. North Korea launched a Hwasong-17 ICBM from Sunan, Pyongyang, toward the East Sea on Friday.

In particular, the newspaper added that Kim stated that “the more the U.S. imperialists make a military bluffing in the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area while being engrossed in ‘strengthened offer of extended deterrence’ to their allies and war exercises, the more offensive the DPRK’s military counteraction will be.” DPRK is an abbreviation of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

Kim is said to have underscored the WPK’s “defense-building strategy for steadily bolstering up the nuclear strategic weapons” in the North’s possession.

On Sunday, Rodong Sinmun mentioned the possibility of a preemptive strike.

A “solemn” declaration by the WPK adorned the first page of the newspaper on Sunday, in which the party noted that the title of country in possession of the world’s strongest ICBM is a substantial one. It added that such a title signifies that the US is no longer the only country capable of executing a preemptive strike with a nuclear weapon, and is irrefutable proof that the North has the power to stand up to the US’ nuclear hegemony.

South Korea and the US responded immediately. Directly following the North’s launch on Friday, Yoon ordered the National Security Council Standing Committee (NSC) to “work with the US and the international community to condemn and promote sanctions against North Korea, including measures stated by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).”

The US conducted a joint air drill with Korea and Japan with strategic bombers on Saturday and will hold a UNSC meeting on Monday. South Korea does not have the right to vote at the Security Council’s open meeting, but as an interested party, it will participate to issue a condemnation of North Korea’s actions.

On Oct. 14, the South Korean government made a symbolic gesture by adopting independent sanctions against North Korea for the first time since December 2017. The government put 15 individuals and 16 institutions involved in North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile development programs on the list.

However, additional sanctions made by the UNSC will likely only increase the tension on the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, the council is unlikely to pass additional sanctions against North Korea due to opposition from China and Russia, which are currently in conflict with the US. At a UNSC meeting held on Oct. 3, the day after North Korea test-launched a Hwasong-17, opposition from China and Russia rendered it impossible to even make a legally binding chairman’s statement.

When US President Joe Biden urged China to act on the North Korea nuclear issue during the US-China summit on Nov. 14, Chinese leader Xi Jinping stated that there should be a balanced response to North Korea’s “legitimate concerns.”

In order to change the political climate, this vicious cycle must be put to an end.

Rodong Sinmun quoted Kim as saying that “to improve our security, it is important to make sure that pragmatic choices should be considered, so we will be sure to go ahead with more clear actions.” The Pyongyang leader’s remarks can be interpreted that “pragmatic choices” will be made only through dialogue, and “hostile foreign policies and the liquidation of nuclear threats” will be the goal of these negotiations.

Moon Jang-ryul, a former professor at National Defense University, stated that “as the tensions on the Korean Peninsula continue with no signs of relief, fatigue related to the status quo and the cost that has to be paid is increasing.”

He added that with South Korea, the US, and Japan rapidly accelerating their cooperation regarding security under the pretext of the North Korean threat, there is a rising possibility of the Korean Peninsula becoming a stage for US-China strategic confrontation. He further remarked that the situation is slowly growing “murkier,” while adding that “it is not too late to think about how this must end.”

By Jung In-hwan, staff reporter

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