North Korean chief Kim Jong-un speaks at an occasion commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the Employees’ Social gathering of Korea on Oct. 9, 2025. (KCNA/Yonhap)
North Korea issued its first official response to the joint reality sheet launched after the South Korea-US summit and the joint assertion of the South Korea-US Safety Consultative Assembly, warning that South Korea’s development of nuclear-powered submarines will result in a “nuclear domino” impact within the area. It additionally denounced the 2 nations’ acknowledged aim of the “full denuclearization” of North Korea.
In an editorial titled “Commentary on Confrontational Declaration of US-ROK Alliance,” the state-run Korean Central Information Company claimed on Tuesday that the US and South Korea are “overtly ignoring the DPRK’s reputable safety concern[s] and aggravating the regional rigidity,” utilizing the abbreviated type of North Korea’s official identify, the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea.
“The confrontational intention of the US and the ROK to stay hostile in the direction of the DPRK was formulated as their coverage as soon as once more,” the outlet stated, including that North Korea would “take extra justified and real looking countermeasures to defend the sovereignty and safety pursuits of the state and regional peace.”
This prolonged commentary, spanning over 1,600 phrases in English, is North Korea’s official response to the joint reality sheet from the South Korea-US summit and the joint assertion from the South Korea-US Safety Consultative Assembly launched final Friday.
North Korea significantly objected to using the phrase “full denuclearization” of the North versus “full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” calling it a “den[ial of] the entity and the existence of the DPRK.”
It dismissed the US’ pledge to make an effort to implement the joint assertion produced in the course of the 2018 Singapore North Korea-US summit, calling it the “top of shamelessness.”
“The US is speaking concerning the implementation of the previous DPRK-US settlement which has been scrapped and nullified by the US itself,” the commentary learn, calling the transfer illustrative of the “mind-set of Yankees” which embodies self-centered vanity.
The KCNA asserted that the current summit agreements have been “essentially the most vivid manifestation” of the Trump administration’s coverage stance towards North Korea, including that the US dedication on the summit stage with South Korea to the whole denuclearization of North Korea is an “intensive expression of their confrontational will to disclaim the structure of the DPRK to the final.”
The KCNA additional stated that this “put an finish to the burning query amongst media and consultants concerning the true nature and orientation of the current US administration’s coverage towards the DPRK,” claiming that not solely Pyongyang, however your entire worldwide neighborhood, has confirmed their understanding of the US stance towards North Korea.
Relating to the US granting South Korea approval to assemble nuclear-powered submarines, it condemned the motion as “a critical growth that destabilizes the safety scenario within the Asia-Pacific area past the Korean Peninsula and causes the scenario of unimaginable nuclear management within the international sphere.”
It additional asserted that South Korea’s possession of nuclear submarines is a “strategic transfer for ‘its personal nuclear weaponization’ and that is sure to trigger a ‘nuclear domino phenomenon’ within the area and spark a scorching arms race.”
The “hegemonic” scheme by the US to “encircle and include rivals by forming a US-led NATO-style safety construction within the Asia-Pacific area by placing the US-ROK alliance on a regional and fashionable foundation” is changing into a actuality. Such actuality requires heightened vigilance concerning the more and more unstable regional and worldwide safety scenario, together with redoubling accountable efforts to handle these encroachments, the company wrote.
This seems to be an announcement indicating North Korea’s intent to take part in “accountable efforts” on the regional stage, whereas additionally mentioning that South Korea’s possession of nuclear-powered submarines could possibly be utilized for the aim of containing China.
Moreover, North Korea criticized the US for expressing its assist for South Korea’s transfer to safe uranium enrichment and spent nuclear gasoline reprocessing capabilities, stating this paves the way in which for South Korea to turn into a “quasi-nuclear weapons state” and exposes America’s “harmful try at confrontation.”
Regardless of its vehement opposition to South Korea’s insurance policies in addition to these of the Trump administration, Pyongyang seems to have exercised restraint in its response, because the assertion was issued within the type of a KCNA commentary quite than within the identify of a high-ranking official.
By Park Min-hee, senior workers author
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
