North Korea slammed the United States over its “outdated” nuclear de-escalation plan…
On Tuesday, North Korea pledged to expand its nuclear forces under Kim Jong Un and criticized the U.S. and its neighbors in Asia for pushing a denuclearization plan against the authoritarian regime.
North Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the joint pledge between the U.S., South Korea and Japan as an “outdated, absurd plan” and warned of “overwhelming and decisive counteraction” against its rivals who threaten its security.
“As long as the U.S. and its vassal forces’ hostile threat exists, the DPRK’s nukes are means for defending peace and sovereignty and a means for legitimate self-defense entrusted by the constitution of the state,” an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in a statement picked up by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, Fox News reported.
The criticism comes after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi during a security conference in Germany and reaffirmed their commitment to the Hermit Kingdom’s “complete denuclearization” and maintaining sanctions on the country’s weapons program.
The countries also agreed to bolster defense and deterrence, including by expanding three-way military exercises and strengthening Japan and South Korea’s military capabilities, according to a joint statement released after the meeting.
Earlier this month, North Korea strongly rebuked U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s comments describing the country as a “rogue state,” calling it “nonsense” and vowing to push back against the Trump administration. (RELATED: North Korea Issues Thinly-Veiled Threat After Rubio’s ‘Rogue State’ Remark)
Rubio made the remarks during an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” where he was speaking about the goals of U.S. foreign policy.
“It’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was not – that was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet. We face that now with China and to some extent Russia, and then you have rogue states like Iran and North Korea you have to deal with,” Rubio said, according to the State Department.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said in response that Rubio “talked nonsense by terming the DPRK a ‘rogue state’ while enumerating the foreign policy of the new U.S. administration.”
