Yoon warns North Korea could face 'end of regime' in Armed Forces Day address

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Yoon warns North Korea could face 'end of regime' in Armed Forces Day address

Published: 01 Oct. 2024, 11:35 Updated: 01 Oct. 2024, 12:40

SARAH KIM
kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr

President Yoon Suk Yeol, front, and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun inspect troops during a ceremony marking the 76th Armed Forces Day at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol said that North Korea will face the end of its regime if it attempts to use nuclear weapons in an Armed Forces Day ceremony address Tuesday.

"If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the ROK-U.S. alliance," Yoon said. "That day will be the end of the North Korean regime."

Yoon gave an address in a ceremony marking the 76th Armed Forces Day held at the Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

Noting that the North Korean regime "continues to insist on a path of regression and downfall," Yoon said it only pursues "hereditary power succession, turning a blind eye to the miserable lives of their people and threatening us with nuclear weapons and missiles."

Yoon said Pyongyang has committed "despicable types of provocations like sending trash balloons and GPS jamming attacks," and "now gone so far as to claim a 'two hostile states' theory, even denying the possibility of reunification."

He also said North Korea has been engaging in illegal arms deals with Russia, defying international norms.

"Our military will immediately retaliate against North Korea's provocations based on its robust combat capabilities and solid readiness posture," Yoon added, calling on Pyongyang to "abandon the delusion that nuclear weapons will protect them."

Last month, North Korea made a rare disclosure of its secretive uranium enrichment facility, in addition to sending trash-laden balloons to the South.

In his address, Yoon also highlighted that through the Washington Declaration from his bilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in April 2023, the South-U.S. alliance has been "upgraded to a true nuclear-based alliance."

Yoon pointed to the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) as "building a fully integrated extended deterrence."

He said Washington's "strong commitment to extended deterrence is being realized through action," noting that a U.S. strategic nuclear submarine visited Korea and a B-52 strategic bomber landed on the Korean Peninsula for the first time.

Some 5,000 troops and 340 pieces of military equipment were mobilized for the Armed Forces Day ceremony and military parade, an opportunity for South Korea to show off its newest weapons.

The military said it will feature its Hyunmoo-5 missile, capable of delivering powerful retaliatory strikes against North Korea and a key asset in South Korea's Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan, part of the military's "three-axis" deterrence system.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]