Kim Yong-chun’s nuclear invocation
Kim Yong-chun speaks during a central report meeting held in Pyongyang to commemorate the 19th year of Kim Chong-il's appointment as KPA Supreme Commander (Photo:KCNA)
Kim Yong-chun (VMar), NDC Vice Chairman and Minister of the People’s Armed Forces, said that the DPRK and KPA “are fully ready to start a sacred war based on the nuclear deterrent at a time we deem necessary.” Kim made these remarks during a central report meeting held to commemorate the 19th year of Kim Chong-il’s appointment as KPA Supreme Commander.
Chosun Ilbo reports:
“If the U.S. imperialists and their followers should ignite an all-out war, our revolutionary armed forces will annihilate the aggressors and their strongholds, to remove the root of war and achieve the historic cause of the fatherland’s reunification,” the official Korean Central Broadcasting Station quoted him as saying.
Kim claimed South Korea “launched a military provocation by firing artillery shells consecutively during an exercise for an aggressive war in the West Sea. This shows that the enemy’s aggressive plan aimed at igniting a second Korean War has now entered a practical stage.”
He repeated the North will “not hesitate to strike” if the enemy “invades even 0.001mm of its sky, land and sea.”
During a central report meeting held on 27 July 2010 (to commemorate the end of the Korean, or Fatherland Liberation, War) Kim made a similar statement:
Should the U.S. imperialists and the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors finally ignite a new war of aggression in Korea despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK, it will mobilize the tremendous military potential, including its nuclear deterrence for self-defense and thus wipe out the aggressors and blow up all their strongholds. By doing so it will clearly show what a real war will look like and completely eradicate the root cause of war
Kim Yong-chun has close personal ties (and an occasional hunting buddy) to Kim Chong-il and is exceedingly loyal. It is probably a good thing that central report meetings compel KYC to stick to a script. In the 1990’s Kim Yong-chun told a disconcerted Kim Chong-il that another DPRK elite “should be shot to death.”
Audience members applaud during a central report meeting held on 23 December 2010 at the 25 April House of Culture to commemorate Kim Chong-il's 19th anniversary in the position of KPA Supreme Commander (Photo: KCNA)
