North Korea Allows ‘Automatic’ Nuclear Strikes to Protect Kim

Kim Jong Un expanded the circumstances under which North Korea would launch a nuclear strike -- including attacking automatically if his leadership is threatened -- further raising the stakes for any military confrontation with the US and its allies.

North Korea laid out its new nuclear doctrine in a law approved Thursday by the Supreme People’s Congress in Pyongyang, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The legislation, which replaces a less expansive law passed in 2013, outlines five conditions for using weapons of mass destruction, including in response to conventional attacks on state leaders and to prevent the “expansion or protraction” of a conflict.