Kim Jong Un Says South Korea's Nuclear-Powered Submarine Push Is Worsening Tensions

Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, claimed that tensions on the Korean Peninsula are worsening as South Korea pushes to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. He also reiterated North Korea's unwavering position on its status as a nuclear-armed state. Until now, criticism aimed at South Korea and the United States had largely been delivered by his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who serves as a senior official in the Workers' Party of Korea. This time, however, Kim himself stepped forward.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 23rd that Kim made the remarks at the second plenary meeting of the ninth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, which was held from the 20th to the 22nd.
Kim said, "Since the beginning of this year, the United States and South Korea have been increasingly open in their efforts to expand and modernize military power in the region, and they are even pushing ahead with South Korea's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines." He added, "By carrying out military drills and reconnaissance activities aimed directly at our state, they are driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to an extreme level of deterioration."
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), said North Korea had been watching the progress of South Korea–United States efforts on nuclear-powered submarines and then raised the leader's response level once the issue became visibly concrete. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a briefing the previous day that it would seek to reach an agreement with Washington by the end of the year on nuclear-powered submarines, uranium enrichment, and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.
In his concluding remarks at the meeting, Kim also said North Korea would fully exercise its status as a nuclear-armed state. He argued that possessing nuclear weapons is the most accurate and only way to respond to an unpredictable international military and political environment.
He also continued his criticism of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) between South Korea and the United States. On the 11th, South Korea and the United States held the sixth NCG meeting in Seoul and issued a joint statement saying they had reaffirmed their shared goal of North Korea's denuclearization.
Kim also said North Korea would maintain its hard-line stance of 'struggle against the enemy' toward South Korea and the United States. He stressed that North Korea must firmly uphold the party's principle of opposing the enemy and again laid out a foreign policy aimed at countering 'imperialist aggression and war schemes.'
Yang Moo-jin, a distinguished professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the remarks appeared intended to preempt any possibility that North Korea's nuclear issue could be raised after the end of the war in Iran. He also said that stronger alliances with China and Russia make a shift toward dialogue less likely.
Kim also ordered accelerated construction of a 10,000-ton guided missile cruiser. It was the first time North Korea has disclosed that it is building a warship of that size.
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