North Korea accused the United States on Wednesday 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, state media KCNA said, citing an international affairs analyst named Choe Ju Hyon who accused a senior U.S. naval official of encouraging Japan and South Korea to pursue nuclear-powered submarines.
– Saying that the AUKUS pact — under which the U.S. 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, and noting Seoul’s pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines and discussion in Tokyo, the commentary 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 Kim visited a shipyard to inspect what it 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 Tuesday to attend a regional security conference in China called the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum.