North Korea’s constitution now mandates an immediate retaliatory nuclear missile strike should leader Kim Jong Un be killed by a foreign power.

The constitutional amendment was approved during the first session of North Korea’s 15th Supreme People’s Assembly, convened in Pyongyang on March 22, according to The Telegraph. Details of the revisions were relayed to senior South Korean officials on Thursday by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Under the updated legislation, Kim Jong Un retains control over the country’s nuclear arsenal, while new provisions now formally outline how retaliation would be executed if the leadership comes under attack. “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the updated Article 3 of North Korea’s nuclear policy law states, as per report.

This development comes months after top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several senior advisers, were assassinated during US-Israeli military operations.

North Korea announced last week that it plans to deploy new long-range artillery systems this year, capable of targeting South Korea’s capital region, and will commission its first naval destroyer within the coming weeks.

North Korea’s recently amended constitution also eliminated any mention of Korean reunification, aligning with leader Kim Jong Un’s pledge to sever connections with South Korea and establish a dual-state framework on the Korean Peninsula.

It comes weeks after Kim Jong Un’s vow to permanently establish his nation’s nuclear power status while adopting an uncompromising position toward South Korea, which he branded the “most hostile” state, according to state media reports Tuesday.

During an address to Pyongyang’s ceremonial parliament, Kim accused the United States of global “state terrorism and aggression,” seemingly alluding to the Middle East conflict, and declared the North would assume a more assertive position in a unified opposition to Washington as anti-American sentiment grows.

However, Kim refrained from directly naming U.S. President Donald Trump and remarked that whether his opponents “choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice.”

His remarks were broadly consistent with his declarations at last month’s ruling Workers’ Party Congress, where he condemned Seoul while keeping diplomatic channels with the Trump administration open, calling on Washington to abandon its insistence on the North’s nuclear disarmament as a prerequisite for negotiations.

There had been anticipation that the amendments would formally designate South Korea as a perpetual adversary and eliminate language about shared heritage. This aligns with Kim’s hardline approach after he announced in 2024 that the North would relinquish its longstanding objective of peaceful reunification with the South.

Experts suggest Kim’s demonization of South Korea reflects his view that Seoul, which facilitated his initial summits with Trump in 2018 and 2019, is no longer a useful intermediary with Washington but an obstacle to his push for a more assertive regional role.

He has also demonstrated a notable sensitivity toward South Korean soft power, launching aggressive campaigns to suppress the influence of its culture and language among North Koreans as he seeks to tighten his family’s iron-fisted rule.

In his address, Kim boasted about the nation’s rapid buildup of nuclear weapons and missiles in recent years, describing it as the “right” choice to counter future threats and “hegemonic pursuits” by “gangsterlike” imperialists – a term Pyongyang frequently deploys when referring to the United States and its allies.

“The dignity of the nation, its national interest and its ultimate victory can only be guaranteed by the strongest of power,” Kim declared. “The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes.”