DPRK says US triggers nuclear arms race, threatens basis NPT

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Aug 2023 14:22

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has responded to the US reaffirming that its nuclear weapons are a sovereign right and prevent a nuclear war.

This photo provided by the Democratic People's Republic of Korean government, shows what it says are rocket launchers during a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea Thursday, July 27, 2023. (KCNA/AP)

The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations, according to Korean Central News Agency KCNA, accused the US of bolstering nuclear proliferation and urged Washington, on Saturday, to stop "sharing nuclear" or "beefing up extended deterrence," referring to AUKUS alliance and the Nuclear Consultative Group with South Korea.

Pyongyang reaffirmed that "Its nuclear force will never be a threat to those countries respecting its sovereignty and security interests," while defending its nuclear weapons as an "exercise of sovereignty to prevent the outbreak of a nuclear war, defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity and control and manage the situation of the Korean peninsula stably, under the unstable security environment in the region caused by such nuclear threat from the US and its allied forces."

The DPRK reminded that "Signatories to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) should not take issue with the DPRK over its legitimate exercise of sovereignty, as it had legally withdrawn from the NPT 20 years ago according to the right of a signatory specified in the treaty, but concentrate efforts on finding solutions to the major challenges facing the treaty."

The DPRK also urged the US, which represented the world's biggest nuclear weapons state and the world's first nuclear user, to "halt at once the criminal acts of systematically violating and wrecking the international disarmament system while threatening and blackmailing sovereign states by deploying its nuclear strategic assets in different parts of the world."

The US, according to the DPRK, has "undermined the basis of the international nuclear non-proliferation system and triggered off a nuclear arms race in the world and the region" by "pushing ahead with nuclear proliferation to Australia under the signboard of the AUKUS alliance" as well as launching the "operation of the US-South Korea 'Nuclear Consultative Group' simulating the use of nukes against the DPRK."

According to the statement published on KCNA, the US had also "deployed a nuclear submarine loaded with strategic nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula for the first time in 42 years, thus escalating the military tension in the region to the eve of the outbreak of a nuclear war."

The global arms race is expanding into the nuclear arsenal, with #nuclear warheads proliferating amid tensions and wars in several parts of the world. pic.twitter.com/1gflNQCUiF
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 18, 2023

Japan claims 'threats' to justify turning into military power: DPRK

The recently issued defense white paper by Japan underscores its ambition to establish itself as a military power, citing supposed threats originating from its neighboring countries as a justification, the Korean Central News Agency KCNA reported on Wednesday, August 2, citing a Foreign Ministry official. "As to the 'threats from neighboring countries' mentioned by Japan so often, it is nothing but a smoke screen to justify its moves toward turning itself into a major military power," said Kim Sol Hwa, a researcher with the DPRK Foreign Ministry's Institute for Japan Studies.

Although Japan's defense white paper identifies China and Russia as potential threat sources, it's the US that "totally destroys the regional peace and stability" by creating a "confrontation alliance in the vast Asia-Pacific region", along with the deployment of nuclear strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.

"North Korea's military activities pose an even more grave and imminent threat to Japan's national security than ever before," said Japan's Defense Ministry last week when presenting the white paper, proposing military budget increases.

The ministry revealed plans to allocate 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) to advance multi-type missile capabilities. This would be 25 times the budget spent in the past five years.