Newsletters
North Korea warned the United Nations on Monday that Japan's accelerating rearmament was creating regional security risks, while reiterating that Pyongyang's status as a nuclear weapons state was irreversible.
Addressing the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong accused Japan of taking advantage of the current international environment to expand its military capabilities.
Kim said Japan was pursuing the revision of its Peace Constitution, moving away from an "exclusively defense-oriented policy," restructuring its military and expanding its arsenal.
"Such actions are casting war clouds over the entire region," he said.
Kim said Japan was developing and acquiring long-range strike weapons under what Tokyo describes as "counterattack capability," placing neighboring countries within range.
He also criticized recent joint military exercises involving the U.S., Japan and South Korea, accusing Washington of expanding what he described as nuclear war preparations against North Korea.
"The U.S.-Japan-South Korea military alliance, unmistakably aimed at the DPRK, is being evolved by the United States into a more offensive and aggressive military bloc with a nuclear element," Kim said, using North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea has previously warned that Japan's alleged nuclear ambitions "must be prevented at any cost" after an unnamed Japanese government official reportedly said Tokyo should possess nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang said those remarks showed Japan was "openly revealing their ambition to possess nuclear weapons, going beyond the red line."
Kim also repeated Pyongyang's position that its own nuclear weapons status was permanent.
"The status of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state that has been uncompromisingly and permanently fixed both physically and legally with absolutely no turning back, can never be reversed in any circumstances or by any means," he said.
North Korea first conducted a nuclear test in 2006 in violation of U.N. resolutions and is believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang has repeatedly said it will retain its nuclear arsenal despite international sanctions, arguing that the weapons are needed to deter military threats from the U.S. and its allies.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he remains open to talks with Washington if Pyongyang is allowed to keep its nuclear weapons.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
