A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry warned on Saturday that the update of US nuclear policy would have a “negative impact on the security situation and the nuclear disarmament system,” the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
Tass reported on Saturday that a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the United States of being “obsessed with achieving unilateral nuclear superiority,” the state-run Korean news agency quoted as saying. The spokesman added: “The change in nuclear policy of the United States – a country that has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world – will have a significant negative impact on the security situation and the nuclear disarmament system.”
The remarks came in response to reports of President Joe Biden’s revision of a nuclear strategy document that reorients the U.S. deterrence strategy and focuses on expanding China’s nuclear arsenal.
The strategic document, titled “Nuclear Employment Guidance,” was reportedly approved by Biden in March and is updated about every four years. It is top secret. The White House has not publicly announced that Biden approved the revisions.
Newsweek contacted the Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the North Korean Foreign Ministry and the US State Department by email on Sunday.
Earlier this summer, Pranay Vaddi, the National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, said the new strategy emphasized “the need to simultaneously deter Russia, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea,” according to a report by The New York Times.
It is difficult to determine the exact number of global nuclear arsenals. A 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates that Russia has 5,580 nuclear warheads, the US 5,044, and China 500, while the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) states that Russia and the US have 4,380 and 3,708, respectively. The US government had already announced in September 2023 that it had 3,748 nuclear warheads at that time.
In addition to the United States, Russia, China and North Korea, five other countries possess nuclear weapons. Washington assumes that Beijing is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal. According to estimates, the country could have over 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
“China is seriously concerned about the relevant report,” Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a recent press conference. Responding to Biden’s updates to the Nuclear Employment Guidance, Mao added that Beijing maintains its nuclear arsenal at the minimum level required for national security, which is not at the same level as that of the United States.
According to the figures mentioned, Washington’s nuclear arsenal is the second largest after Moscow’s.
The USA is the only country that has used nuclear weapons in war. During World War II, it detonated two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. In the years that followed, during the Cold War, the USA and Russia engaged in a nuclear arms race.
“The US likes to talk about ‘nuclear threats’ from others without giving any context. But the US is the most irresponsible actor and the rogue state that is provoking a nuclear arms race and increasing the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict,” the North Korean spokesman said, according to Tass.
Global tensions and the threat of nuclear war have escalated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a war that has now lasted over two and a half years. In addition to the threat of nuclear war, fighting near nuclear power plants in Russia and Ukraine has raised concerns about possible meltdowns.
