North Korea Pushes Back Against IAEA's Denuclearization Call... Silent on 44.6 Billion Won Liaison Office Compensation Ruling

Kim Yo-jong, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea, reacted on September 17 to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s call for denuclearization, dismissing it as "familiar noise." This nuclear-related message follows the North Korean Ministry of National Defense's warning the previous day that it may invoke its nuclear force policy law in response to discussions between South Korea and the United States on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) countermeasures. Meanwhile, North Korea remains silent regarding the court's decision ordering it to pay 44.6 billion won in damages for the destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office.

Kim Yo-jong, Deputy Department Head of the Workers' Party, threatened in a public speech that COVID-19 was introduced to the North by the South, stating that they are considering strong retaliatory measures. 2022.8.11 Yonhap News Agency

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim stated in her commentary that the call for North Korean denuclearization at the 70th IAEA General Conference was "neither surprising nor anything new, just noise." She emphasized, "The status of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a nuclear-weapon state is absolute and irreversible under any circumstance," declaring that North Korea's nuclear status is "a reality permanently enshrined both physically and legally."

At the IAEA General Conference, which opened on September 14, South Korea and European countries urged North Korea's complete denuclearization, warning that North Korea's nuclear program poses a serious threat to the international nonproliferation regime.

This statement by Kim Yo-jong comes 28 days after her prior commentary, which directly criticized President Lee Jaemyung by name on August 20. This is her tenth official statement this year.

For the second consecutive day, North Korea has asserted both the possibility of using nuclear weapons and the permanence of its nuclear-armed status. The North Korean Ministry of National Defense stated the previous day that targeting the U.S.-South Korea Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Committee (CWMDC) "could be considered a major security threat requiring the invocation of the relevant articles of the national nuclear force policy law," and warned that "the parties involved should clearly interpret what the invocation of these articles means and take it as a stern warning."

Im Eulchul, professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, explained, "North Korea categorizes South Korea-U.S. WMD response measures and joint exercises as attempts at biological or nuclear attacks, thus arguing that the 'imminent attack' condition stipulated in the nuclear force policy law has been met." He added, "This calculation is intended to shift responsibility for any future military actions onto the U.S. and South Korea and preemptively justify the possible use of nuclear weapons." He also assessed, "Kim Yo-jong's statement aimed to pressure the international community to accept 'nuclear-armed North Korea' as a new reality."

On the other hand, North Korea has yet to issue any official response regarding the South Korean court's recent ruling that it must pay compensation for the destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office. The Seoul Central District Court's Civil Agreement Division 46 ruled that North Korea must pay the government 44,626,417,220 won plus interest and also bear litigation costs.

This was the government's first lawsuit against North Korea for damages and concluded three years and three months after it was filed in June 2023. Since North Korea did not participate in the trial, the proceedings were carried out through public notice. However, it appears unlikely that the government will actually be able to collect the compensation. At present, there are no practical means to enforce the payment against North Korea. North Korea previously destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office located in the Kaesong Industrial Complex on June 16, 2020.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.