SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea expressed serious concern and strongly condemned on Saturday a revised nuclear strategic plan approved by U.S. President Joe Biden this year.
“The DPRK will as ever bolster up its strategic strength in every way to control and eliminate all sorts of security challenges that may result from the U.S. dangerous nuclear posture readjustment, and resolutely counter any type of nuclear threat,” its foreign ministry said, using North Korea’s official name.
“Other sovereign states’ efforts for bolstering up their defence capabilities to cope with the ever-increasing nuclear threat from the U.S. can never be a pretext for its nuclear arms buildup for aggression and provocative coordination of nuclear posture,” the ministry added in a statement carried by state media KCNA.
“No matter how desperately the U.S. may exaggerate the ‘nuclear threat’ from other countries, the DPRK will push forward the building of nuclear force sufficient and reliable enough to firmly defend the sovereignty and security interests of the country on its fixed timetable,” it said.
The White House said on Tuesday the classified nuclear strategic plan is not a response to a single country or threat, after the New York Times reported it reoriented the deterrence strategy to focus on China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal for the first time.
China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it is seriously concerned about the report, which said the plan also seeks to prepare the U.S. for possible coordinated nuclear challenges from China, Russia and North Korea.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Sandra Maler)
