North Korea says US-driven nuclear submarine push justifies its own weapons build-up
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (centre) touring the destroyer Kang Kon during a commissioning ceremony on Sept 6.
PHOTO: AFP
SEOUL – North Korea on Sept 16 accused the US of expanding a “nuclear submarine alliance” that it said was undermining global nuclear security, as the fifth anniversary of its AUKUS defence pact with Australia and Britain arrives.
Washington was intensifying nuclear proliferation efforts, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing an international affairs analyst named Choe Ju Hyon, who accused a senior US naval official of encouraging Japan and South Korea to pursue nuclear-powered submarines.
The commentary said the AUKUS pact – under which the US and Britain are helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines – has become a template Washington is seeking to extend to other allies, including South Korea and Japan. It noted Seoul’s pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines and discussions in Tokyo and said the developments justified North Korea’s continued build-up of its own nuclear deterrent.
North Korea has been advancing its own push for a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed submarine.
In December, North Korean state media photos showed a largely completed hull of a submarine as leader Kim Jong Un visited a shipyard. He inspected what the state media described as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine, calling it a crucial step in the modernisation and nuclear armament of the navy.
Separately, KCNA reported that a delegation from North Korea’s Ministry of National Defence, led by Vice-Minister Kim Kang Il, departed Pyongyang on Sept 15 to attend a regional security conference in China called the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum. REUTERS