North Korea has passed a law allowing it to conduct a nuclear strike “automatically” against any “hostile forces” posing an imminent threat to the nation, according to the official state-run media.

The new law, passed at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sept. 8, will allow North Korea to “immediately destroy the hostile forces” to protect itself, state mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The law states that North Korea will employ nuclear weapons only as a last resort, but that nuclear forces will be the primary force of national defense to protect the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and people.

“With this, the position of our state as a nuclear weapon state has become irreversible,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying by KCNA in a separate report.