US follows Iran denuclearization remarks with comments on North Korea's nukes: "A sufficient signal will be sent"

According to Financial News, US government officials who argue that Iran was preemptively attacked in the name of denuclearization have made a series of suggestive comments about North Korea's nuclear weapons. In particular, the United States Secretary of Defense predicted that the latest strike on Iran would send a clear signal to North Korea.
The Hill, a US political news outlet, reported that on the 4th (local time), Donald Trump spoke at an energy-related event held at The White House and referred to the airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities carried out in June last year. He claimed, "If we had not attacked, they would have had nuclear weapons." He went on to say, "Bad things happen when crazy people have nuclear weapons."
On the same day, Elbridge Colby, United States Department of Defense (DoD) Under Secretary for Policy and a key figure in the Trump administration's national security strategy, mentioned North Korea at a seminar hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a US think tank. When asked about criticism that there had been no reference to North Korea, which is estimated to possess around 60 nuclear warheads, he responded, "We have spoken about North Korea. We are well aware of that issue." He added, "That is one of the reasons we maintain a very close alliance with South Korea."
That day, United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also sought to clarify US policy toward North Korea. During a briefing at the Pentagon, he was asked about Washington's position as North Korea reportedly cooperates with Iran on nuclear weapons development and has sided with Iran in the current confrontation. On January 1, through a statement by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Pyongyang condemned the US and Israel's strike on Iran as an "illegal and outrageous act of aggression and the most heinous form of violation of sovereignty."
Hegseth explained that countries "outside the Middle East are not, in fact, major factors" in the Iran issue. He said, "We will address Iran's nuclear ambitions, and in the process, a sufficient signal will be sent."
Also on the 4th, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for The White House, was asked at a regular press briefing whether US policy toward North Korea had changed in light of efforts to denuclearize Iran. She replied, "As of today, there is no change in our position regarding North Korea."
Earlier, Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, stated in a report on the work of the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, held from the 20th to 21st of last month, "If the United States respects the current status of our state as stipulated in the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and withdraws its hostile policy toward the DPRK, then we have no reason not to get along well with the United States."
pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter