Seoul: North Korea on Saturday reaffirmed its commitment to bolstering its defensive capabilities to deter what it calls “provocative attempts” by South Korea and the United States, the North’s state media reported Saturday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, “The DPRK’s bolstering of its self-defensive capabilities is an essential requirement for deterring rivals’ ever-increasing various provocative attempts and ensuring the security of the state,” read a press statement of Pyongyang’s defense policy chief, released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). DPRK is the acronym of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The statement was released a day after the commander of the U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Gregory Guillot, said before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that the North’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) could pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland and overwhelm its defenses. Guillot said Pyongyang may be moving toward producing new ICBMs capable of striking North America.
Pyongyang’s defense official slammed the U.S. general’s remarks, accusing the U.S. of falsely charging North Korea of making “threats” that are “nonexistent.” “The U.S. describing this as a ‘threat’ only proves that it is hostile to the DPRK,” the official said, noting the U.S. is trying to justify its “adventurous military ambitions.” “It is just self-defensive right of a sovereign state to steadily develop the self-defense capability,” he added.
“The armed forces of the DPRK will as ever fully deter and control all kinds of challenges and threats from its rival countries by dint of powerful self-defense capability and faithfully discharge their mission for reliably defending peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.”
The North’s defense policy chief also accused the U.S. of building a missile defense system aimed at preemptively attacking other countries and weaponizing outer space. He also condemned the U.S. nuclear submarine’s recent trip to the Korean Peninsula and information sharing among Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo, as well as Seoul’s plan to hold joint military and space-related drills with the U.S.