North Korea should not supply weapons to Russia as part of a “burgeoning military relationship” between the two countries, the U.S. said, as Pyongyang warned of a “new Cold War” with Washington and stepped up its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea needs to “accelerate the modernization of nuclear weapons in order to hold the definite edge of strategic deterrence,” the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said on Thursday. Pyongyang has amended its constitution to beef up its nuclear capabilities, “strengthening the nuclear force,” Kim told North Korean officials in remarks reported by the secretive country’s state news agency.
“Today, the strategic strength of our state, the nuclear war deterrent, is being remarkably bolstered and steadily strengthened to the extent incomparably greater than the past decades,” Kim added.
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Earlier this month, North Korea unveiled what it called a nuclear attack submarine, although Western experts cast doubt on the true scope of the submarine. Kim recently returned from a visit to Russia, prompting fears that Moscow could furnish Pyongyang with new technology in exchange for sorely needed weapons for its war in Ukraine.
Arms talks between Russia and North Korea have continued following Kim’s departure from Russia earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.
A “burgeoning military relationship” between Russia and North Korea “will further undermine the global non-proliferation regime,” Miller told reporters during a media briefing. “We would urge the DPRK to abide by what it has said publicly and refrain from supplying arms to Russia,” Miller added, referring to North Korea by its official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have long worried Western countries and South Korea. Seoul’s President Yoon Suk Yeol previously said Moscow aiding Pyongyang’s weapons programs in exchange for arms in Ukraine would be “a direct provocation.”
Kim echoed this language on Thursday, saying the U.S. was “steeped in the Cold War mentality,” and had “gone to extremes in its anti-DPRK military provocations.”
North Korea is accelerating its nuclear weapons program to “fulfill its mission as a responsible nuclear weapons state in the struggle to preserve stability on the Korean peninsula,” the North Korean leader added, saying a “new Cold War” is taking shape on the world stage.
The comments come as U.S. soldier Travis King, who crossed into North Korean territory in July, traveled back to the U.S. after being expelled from Pyongyang’s territory. The illegal crossing earlier this year was a diplomatically awkward incident for the U.S., which doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea.
“He is now on his way to the United States, and we expect him to arrive in the coming hours,” Miller said on Wednesday. He had been transported to North Korea’s border with China, before boarding a State Department plane to the Chinese city of Shenyang, Miller added. King then arrived at a U.S. base in South Korea before heading back to the U.S. he said.
North Korea’s state news agency said authorities had “decided to expel” the U.S. soldier, who “illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK,” without offering up further details.