Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

The stance of the Defense Ministry regarding a statement by the North Korean defense minister

A statement by North Korea’s defense minister on July 20 that criticized the purpose of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting between South Korea and the United States, and the port call of a US strategic nuclear submarine (SSBN) to Korea, was misleading.

The holding of the NCG meeting and the deployment of the SSBN are not part of a conspiracy to use nuclear weapons or make nuclear threats against North Korea as it said, but a justified defensive countermeasure of the ROK-US alliance against North Korea’s persistent nuclear and missile threats.

North Korea’s nuclear program and missile provocations are clear violations of the United Nations Security Council resolutions and are illegal acts. North Korea is the only nation that has adopted a nuclear armament policy law that provides for an illegal preemptive nuclear attack and has carried out preemptive nuclear attack exercises and repeated nuclear threats against the ROK-US alliance.

As South Korea and the United States clearly declared in the NCG session, North Korea will face an immediate, overwhelming and decisive response from the alliance in the event of a nuclear attack against the ROK-US alliance, and the alliance strongly warns again that an attack will result in the end of the North Korean regime.

North Korea must recognize that it will get no concessions from the ROK-US alliance for its nuclear development and threats, which will only lead to worsening isolation and hardships, and the alliance urges the North to start denuclearization immediately.