TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea reiterated that it had no intention of giving up its nuclear program, blaming the United States for “creating tension” on the Korean peninsula, after the U.S. President Donald Trump described the country as a “nuclear power.”
Since 2006, North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests and has consistently declared that it will never relinquish its nuclear weapons. It also demands recognition as a nuclear power, which both the U.S. and its ally, South Korea, firmly reject, instead calling for North Korea’s “denuclearization.”
But Trump’s reference on Monday has raised the possibility of a shift in U.S. policy towards recognizing the country’s nuclear status.
“As a responsible nuclear weapons state, we will continue to make efforts to prevent all forms of war and to protect peace and stability,” said Jo Chol Su, North Korea’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva during a U.N. conference on disarmament on Tuesday.
“The United States has been conducting aerial espionage against North Korea since the beginning of the year … U.S. political and military provocations are the root cause of triggering armed conflicts and undermining regional stability.
“The strongest defense is the only way to protect peace. We will strongly deter any attempt by hostile forces to provoke us militarily,” Jo added.
Jo’s remarks were in response to criticism from U.N. member states over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
In particular, Kim Il-hoon, South Korea’s deputy permanent representative to the U.N. in Geneva, pointed out that North Korea had violated U.N. Security Council resolutions by providing Russia with a large quantity of weapons and ballistic missiles, as well as sending more than 11,000 troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
“The recent capture of two North Korean soldiers is a sign of North Korean troops’ participation in the war,” Kim said.
As many as 12,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia’s Kursk region, fighting Ukrainian forces there, according to Ukraine and the U.S. – although neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has acknowledged this.
Ukraine said its forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Kursk in January. Both were wounded and are in custody in Kyiv, reportedly receiving medical attention.
“North Korea has redefined inter-Korean relations by framing the South as an enemy state, effectively dismantling the psychological barrier to launching a preemptive nuclear attack on our people – all of whom are Koreans,” Kim said, referring to Pyongyang’s decision to officially abandon its long-standing goal of peaceful reunification with South Korea.
In January 2024, the North declared the South its “primary foe and invariable principal enemy,” closing agencies dedicated to inter-Korean cooperation and enhancing its military capabilities.
“The lowered threshold for North Korea’s nuclear aggression poses a direct threat to peace and stability in the region,” Kim added.
North Korea’s comments followed Trump’s reference to it as a nuclear power, which hinted at a possible softening of the longstanding U.S. demand that the North dismantles its weapons program.
Japan and South Korea – two important Asian allies of the U.S. – rejected the term.
“North Korea’s nuclear and missile development is a threat to the peace and security of Japan and the international community, and we cannot accept it,” said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday.
“We will also work with the international community, including the U.S. and South Korea, to demand the complete dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs by promoting the full implementation of the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” he added.
South Korea earlier said the North could never be recognized as a nuclear power because to do so would imply abandoning the goal of denuclearization.
The U.S. had refused to recognize North Korea as a nuclear state to uphold global non-proliferation norms and avoid legitimizing Pyongyang’s defiance of international agreements.
There have been lingering concerns that acknowledging the North’s nuclear status could destabilize regional security, embolden Pyongyang, and encourage South Korea and Japan to pursue their own nuclear programs.
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Trump was inaugurated as the 47th U.S. president on Monday, marking the beginning of his second term. During his first term, he embarked on unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful engagement with North Korea to try to get it to abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.
North Korean state media reported his inauguration without comment.
“Donald Trump was inaugurated as president in the United States, and he was elected as the 47th president of the United States in the election held last November,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.
The article was also published in Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which North Koreans can read.
North Korean state media did not report any news related to the U.S. election in November.
Edited by Mike Firn.