North Korea has amended its constitution to mandate an automatic nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, The Telegraph reports. The revision, approved by the Supreme People's Assembly on March 22 in Pyongyang, outlines procedures for retaliation if the country's command-and-control system is threatened.
"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 provision states. South Korea's National Intelligence Service briefed senior officials on the change.
The move follows the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a coordinated U.S.-Israeli operation earlier this year. Kim has previously called South Korea the "most hostile" state and accused the United States of "state terrorism and aggression."