North Korea's sophistry: “Is South Korea saying it will develop its own nuclear weapons?”—War of words between North and South Korea intensifies at the UN, too

[Financial News] As tensions between North and South Korea rise around the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), verbal sparring between the two sides is also intensifying on the UN diplomatic stage. Following clashes over incidents including a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), North Korea has now continued the back-and-forth by challenging South Korea’s deterrence posture against the North, asking, “Are you saying you intend to develop your own nuclear weapons?” South Korea, in turn, responded to North Korea’s far-fetched claims by exercising an unplanned right of reply.
The UN reported on the 24th, local time, that an official with North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the UN had said at the 20th meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, held the previous day at United Nations Headquarters in New York, “We have no intention or reason to do anything with South Korea.” The official continued, “Even so, South Korea holds nuclear war exercises targeting North Korea every year with the United States and openly talks about countermeasures against North Korea,” before asking, “What countermeasures are you going to take against a country that possesses nuclear weapons?” The official went on to make the specious argument, “Are you going to develop your own nuclear weapons, or attack North Korea with U.S. nuclear weapons?”
The North Korean representative also mentioned the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise held last August. The representative claimed that the exercise was an “overt rehearsal for nuclear war” aimed at mastering the procedures and methods for attacking North Korea with nuclear weapons. The representative added, “It is South Korea, not North Korea, that is being provocative,” and said, “We strongly recommend that South Korea find ways and means to ensure its own security rather than provoke us.”
In response, the South Korean representative said, “Our delegation had not planned to speak today, but the North Korean delegation’s repeated and groundless claims have left us no choice but to exercise our right of reply.”
The representative pointed out, “The joint defense and deterrence posture of South Korea and the United States is intended to respond to North Korea’s growing military threats, not the other way around.” The representative also criticized North Korea for “continuing to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs while violating multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”
At the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, exchanges have recently continued over military tensions between North and South Korea and North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, among other issues. North Korea had earlier labeled South Korea “the most hostile country,” reaffirming its hard-line stance on inter-Korean relations, while South Korea criticized North Korea’s landmine emplacement in the DMZ and its nuclear and missile development and urged it to return to dialogue.
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