North Korea says US-led arms buildup justifies expanding nuclear force

By Kyu-seok Shim

Sept 17 (Reuters) – North Korea’s vice defence minister said on Thursday that a growing U.S.-led military buildup and what he called an expanding nuclear alliance among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo justified Pyongyang’s efforts to strengthen and expand its nuclear forces.

Speaking at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China’s flagship international security conference, Vice Defence Minister Kim Kang Il said North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state was irreversible and pledged to continue expanding its nuclear arsenal.

“The ceaseless nuclear arms buildup of the enemy states fully justifies the building of a solid nuclear shield of the DPRK,” Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“As the enemy states’ nuclear threat reaches the extreme level … the DPRK will firmly defend the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region by ceaselessly expanding and strengthening its self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”

Kim blamed tensions on the Korean Peninsula on what he called Washington’s “invariable” hostile policy toward North Korea and accused the United States of turning trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan into a nuclear alliance.

He said North Korea’s constitutional status as a nuclear weapons state was “the line of no retreat” and urged other countries to abandon what he called the “daydream” of denuclearisation.

Kim’s appearance at the Xiangshan Forum marked a rare high-profile showing by North Korea at an international security gathering in recent years and came as Pyongyang seeks closer ties with Beijing amid tensions with Washington and its allies.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim said he was not in a position to discuss whether such a summit could take place.

Former U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun said at the Korea Risk Group’s West Coast Exchange conference on Thursday that North Korea’s muted response to Trump’s repeated claims of communication with Kim Jong Un suggested Pyongyang was “not closing the door” on potential future talks with Washington.

Biegun said it “would not be a surprise at all” if Trump were to propose a meeting with the North Korean leader following the APEC summit in China in November and that such a meeting could even take place in Pyongyang.

DENUCLEARISATION REJECTED

The North Korean official’s remarks followed a statement on Thursday morning from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, rejecting renewed international calls for North Korea’s denuclearisation following discussions at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a statement carried by state media KCNA, she said North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state was “absolute” and could not be reversed, dismissing repeated denuclearisation demands as annual “noise” and insisting Pyongyang’s nuclear position had been permanently established “physically and legally”.

Her comments echoed a separate statement on Wednesday by a North Korean defence ministry spokesman, who accused the United States and South Korea of escalating military confrontation through joint weapons-of-mass-destruction response planning and exercises.

The spokesman said recent U.S.-South Korean WMD response discussions amounted to an “open declaration of confrontation” and warned such actions could require Pyongyang to invoke provisions of its nuclear force policy law.

The statements appeared to form part of a broader messaging campaign by Pyongyang on its nuclear policy, according to Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

The comments were aimed at cementing North Korea’s claim that its nuclear status had reached an “irreversible stage”, while creating justification for future military and nuclear activities in response to what it portrays as growing U.S. and South Korean pressure, Lim said.

(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim with additional reporting by Brenda GohEditing by Ed Davies)