North Korea warns of ‘Hostile Intent’ as US, South Korea approve nuclear submarine plan

North Korea has hit out at the US and South Korea in unusually harsh terms, warning that their recently agreed deal on nuclear-powered submarines is an example of both countries “choosing to remain hostile” towards it and deepening tensions in the region.

In a commentary on Friday, state media agency KCNA said Washington’s approval for Seoul to build the submarines marked the start of a “nuclear domino phenomenon”.

The criticism from Pyongyang came in the wake of the two allies agreeing to a pact on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and the South’s plans to build nuclear-powered attack submarines, with Washington’s approval, that was announced last month.

The United States agreed to a deal that lets South Korea build more advanced submarines that use nuclear power to run.

The agreement comes at a time when both the US and South Korea have been strengthening their security cooperation against what they call the rising nuclear and submarine threats from North Korea.

North Korea’s reaction

Pyongyang has long had ambitions to develop a nuclear-armed submarine fleet but has been rebuffed so far in its efforts to get Washington to allow it to do so.

State media KCNA on Friday called the submarine agreement between Washington and Seoul the “grave warning to the DPRK that it will never be allowed to pass over to peaceful life” but also as “adding fuel to the flames of the new arms race” in the region. Pyongyang has also reacted strongly against the agreement, saying it will spark a nuclear arms race in the region – with a “nuclear domino effect” that will heighten tensions and threaten regional security.

In an article in The New York Times on Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae‑myung said the agreement “is not aimed at challenging” North Korea, and that it was “essential” for Seoul to bolster its defence capabilities. But in North Korea’s reaction, KCNA said in its commentary the submarine agreement confirmed that Washington and Seoul have a “confrontational will” toward the North and that they remain a “hostile” country.

A dead end to dialogue

Observers also say that North Korea’s comments this week are further evidence that the regime remains disinclined to any meaningful negotiations with Washington unless the US accepts its status as a nuclear power. Park Won-gon, a professor at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the KCNA commentary “clearly showed” Pyongyang’s stance that the joint moves by Washington and Seoul demonstrated their “stand towards” North Korea “of regarding it as an adversary, not a dialogue partner.”

Though Trump has left the door open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a fourth time, no new talks have been agreed, and the two leaders’ three meetings in Trump’s first term have failed to achieve any breakthrough.

South Korea’s response

South Korea’s presidential office has said the agreement was “not targeted at” North Korea and that Seoul has no “confrontational or hostile intent”.

“The government believes that the nuclear-powered submarine program is a matter of self-defense and will go ahead with it,” the office was quoted as saying by Reuters.

But Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, also weighed in on the deal on Friday, saying it was “bewildering” that Seoul and Washington “got worked up over [North Korea’s] words which no one is afraid of, in the realm of pursuing their own sovereignty”.

The next moves

The increased tensions between North Korea and South Korea, as well as with the US, may make it more difficult for any moves toward a breakthrough to be announced in the coming months.

Analysts and officials in Washington and Seoul have also said that the submarine agreement, and other joint moves by the allies, would not fundamentally change either country’s basic security policies toward North Korea, which they have defined as “hostile”.

Park at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul was quoted by Reuters as saying “Pyongyang is likely to keep up with its provocative actions in the near future to hold onto its [nuclear] capability”.

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