By Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) -North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has adopted a&nbsp;constitutional amendment to enshrine its&nbsp;policy&nbsp;on&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;force, state media reported on Thursday, as the country's leader pledged to accelerate production of&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons to deter what he called U.S.&nbsp;provocations.
The Supreme People's Assembly unanimously adopted the revision that states&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;"develops highly&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons to ensure" its "rights to existence" and to "deter war", news agency KCNA reported, after the conclusion on Wednesday of a two day-meeting of the&nbsp;North's rubber-stamp parliament.
"The DPRK's&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;force-building&nbsp;policy&nbsp;has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything,"&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean leader Kim Jong Un said, addressing the parliament. DPRK are the initials of the&nbsp;North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of&nbsp;Korea.
Kim went on to stress "the need to push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons and diversifying the&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;strike means and deploying them in different services."
And he said U.S. military drills and deployment of strategic assets in the region were extreme&nbsp;provocations.
South&nbsp;Korea's unification ministry said the revised&nbsp;constitution&nbsp;showed Pyongyang's "strong will" not to abandon its&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;programme.
"We once again stress that&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;will face an end of its regime if it&nbsp;uses&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons," it warned in a statement.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said: "North&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;and missile development poses threats to peace and safety of our country and the international community, and can never be tolerated."
The amendment comes a year after&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;officially enshrined in law the right to&nbsp;use preemptive&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;strikes to protect itself, a move Kim had said would make its&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;status&nbsp;"irreversible".
Kim urged officials to further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the United States, denouncing trilateral cooperation between the U.S., South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and Japan as the "Asian-version NATO."
"This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity," he said.
Kim returned home last week from a trip to Russia during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to boost military and economic cooperation.
U.S. and South&nbsp;Korean officials have expressed concern that Pyongyang could be seeking technological help for its&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;and missile programs while Moscow tries to acquire ammunition from the&nbsp;North&nbsp;to supplement its dwindling stocks for the war in Ukraine.
Analysts said having the&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;policy&nbsp;written into the&nbsp;constitution&nbsp;is a symbolic move, declaring the&nbsp;North's intention to have a permanent&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;force that it would not negotiate over.
"The new Cold War in the&nbsp;Northeast Asia region and military tensions on the&nbsp;Korean peninsula will intensify," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean Studies in Seoul.
On Tuesday, South&nbsp;Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Pyongyang of an "overwhelming response" if it&nbsp;uses&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons, as Seoul put on the first large-scale military parade in a decade in a show of force.
The announcement by parliament also comes after&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean state media said on Wednesday Pyongyang had decided to expel Private Travis King, the U.S. soldier who ran into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;in July. The U.S. said he is now in American custody and heading home after being expelled to China.
In his speech, Kim said ensuring a major revamp of the country's economy was "the most pressing task for the government," and urged the agricultural sector to work harder to promote the people's well-being.
The&nbsp;North&nbsp;has suffered serious&nbsp;food shortages in recent decades, including famine in the 1990s, often as a result of natural disasters, and international experts have warned that border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic worsened food security matters.
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Ed Davies, Josie Kao, Lincoln Feast &amp; Simon Cameron-Moore)

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North Korea amends constitution on nuclear policy, cites US provocations