An agreement between the United States and South Korea, which is aimed at strengthening deterrence against Pyongyang, has been criticised by North Korea, news agency Reuters reported on Monday (May 1) citing state media KCNA. North Korea has reacted angrily to the Yoon-Biden summit as it warned that the meeting consolidated its conviction to perfect its “nuclear war deterrent”.
The response comes after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his US counterpart Joe Biden met in Washington last week to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Washington and Seoul vowed that North Korea would face a nuclear response and there would be an “end” of the leadership, in case it uses its own arsenal.
In its report, KCNA cited Choe Ju Hyon, terming him an international security analyst, as saying that the agreement stipulated the allies’ willingness to take “the most hostile and aggressive action” against North Korea.
The report added that the deployment of American strategic assets has placed the situation of the Korean peninsula in a “quagmire of instability,” and was intended to build “aggressive and exclusive military blocs” in the region.
KCNA said, “It is just aimed to dodge the responsibility for the worst-ever nuclear-related crimes it has committed by systematically destroying and violating the nuclear non-proliferation system, and in particular, pushing the situation of the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war.”
“It is the hegemonic sinister aim pursued by the U.S. to turn the whole of South Korea into its biggest nuclear war outpost in the Far East and effectively use it for attaining its strategy for dominating the world,” it added.
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Kim’s sister on the US-South Korea summit
In response to the crucial summit, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong said that the North was convinced that a nuclear deterrent “should be brought to further perfection”.
As quoted by KCNA, Kim said, “The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula, the stronger the exercise of our right to self-defence will become in direct proportion to them.”
She further noted that the agreement would “only result in making peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world be exposed to more serious danger, and it is an act that can thus never be welcome”.
North Korea has indicated it will not consider giving up nuclear weapons it views as insurance against regime change and has continued to work on its banned nuclear and missile programmes, despite sanctions.
(With inputs from agencies)
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