The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said a new US alliance in the Indo-Pacific and Washington’s recent submarine contract with Australia could trigger a “nuclear arms race” in the region.
The US last week announced a new three-way security pact with Australia and the UK, as part of a strategic partnership under which US nuclear submarines would be supplied to Canberra.
“These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear arms race,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a ministry official as saying.
Photo: AP
“This shows that the US is the chief culprit toppling the international nuclear non-proliferation system,” the official added.
Nuclear-armed North Korea fired two missiles into the sea on Wednesday, with Seoul successfully test-firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) hours later, becoming only the seventh country in the world with the technology.
South Korea’s test is a strategic advance for Seoul. It has been strengthening its military capabilities to counter the threat posed by the North, which is under international sanctions for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
However, in a separate statement carried by the KCNA yesterday, the head of North Korea’s Academy of National Defense Science called Seoul’s newly developed SLBM a “clumsy piece of work” lacking key technology.
“The homegrown SLBM unveiled by South Korea will not be able to serve as an effective means of attack at war,” he said.
The spate of missile tests and bumper defense deals in the Pacific have highlighted a regional arms race that is intensifying as a China-US rivalry grows.
“It is quite natural that neighboring countries, including China, condemned these actions as irresponsible ones of destroying the peace and stability of the region,” the North Korean foreign ministry official said.
US President Joe Biden’s new Australia-US-UK defense alliance is widely seen as aimed at countering the rise of China.
His administration’s relationship with North Korea has marked a change in tone from his predecessor, former US president Donald Trump, who engaged in an extraordinary diplomatic bromance with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“The US double-dealing attitude getting all the more pronounced after the emergence of the new administration ... seriously threatens the world peace and stability,” the official said.
The official added that North Korea “will certainly take a corresponding counteraction in case it has even a little adverse impact on the security of our country.”
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