North Korea's Leader Just Announced He's Getting a Promotion, Nukes Are Ready

Impact

After a string of failed recent missile launches, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is praising his country's robust military operations while also announcing a promotion for himself. During the leader's first time hosting a session for his Workers' Party of Korea congress in Pyongyang, Kim promised he would "strive for the global denuclearization," then proceeded to discuss his wish for North Korea to be fueled by nuclear power (the country doesn't currently have any nuclear power plants). 

He then promised to use North Korea's nuclear weapons only if provoked by other countries. "As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes," state-run media reported Kim said on Sunday, though it's unclear whether the remarks came earlier in the weekend during the congress' session. 

Despite both South Korea and the United States acknowledaging the country's ecently failerd missile tests, Kim praised North Korea for its "victory after victory in the protracted fierce confrontation with the imperialists and the U.S." He also announced he would soon receive the nation's highest title of authority, a promotion that would put him at the same level as North Korea's previous leaders from his family's dynasty.

The confusing rhetoric surrounding Kim's obscure session of congress is perhaps part of the leader's desire to be heard on a global platform. He made that particularly difficult to do after the Washington Post reported three of its journalists had been invited to attend the congressional session, as part of a group of about 130 international reporters, though that group of foreigners were taken through the typical showboating tourist attractions throughout the nation's capital. 

Instead of hearing Kim's plans for whether he will or will not eventually use nuclear weapons on the likes of the United States and other nations, the foreign correspondents were told to stand nearly 300 yards away from the venue where Kim was delivering his speech for about an hour, before visiting an electrical cable factory.

Kim's new message of nuclear responsibility of course charily contradicts what North Korea stated just a few months ago when it posted a YouTube video showing a nuclear explosion on Washington D.C. with the message, "If the American imperialists provoke us a bit, we will not hesitate to slap them with a pre-emptive nuclear strike."

Read more: North Korea Is Threatening War Against the US (Again)