North Korea slams US ‘double-dealing’ over end of guidelines limiting South’s missiles
- A decades-old pact between Washington and Seoul had capped the development of South Korea’s ballistic missiles before its termination earlier this month
- North Korean state media accused the US of attempting to spark an arms race on the Korean peninsula while tightening its ‘military grip’ on the South
North Korea’s official KCNA news agency carried an article by Kim Myong-chol, who it described as an “international affairs critic”, to accuse the US of applying a double standard as it sought to ban Pyongyang from developing ballistic missiles.
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The US is “engrossed in confrontation despite its lip service to dialogue”, Kim said. “The termination step is a stark reminder of the US hostile policy toward [the North] and its shameful double-dealing.”
North Korea’s target is the US, not South Korea’s military, and it will counter Washington on “the principle of strength for strength”, Kim said.
He accused the US of seeking a “tighter military grip” on South Korea and attempting to spark an arms race on the Korean peninsula. Further, he criticised Moon for welcoming the termination of the guidelines, calling it “disgusting, indecent”.
“Now that the US and the South Korean authorities made clear their ambition of aggression, they are left with no reasons whatsoever to fault the DPRK bolstering its capabilities for self-defence,” Kim added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
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The KCNA article marks the North’s first response to the decades-old restrictions on South Korea’s missile development being lifted.
The fact that the comments did not come from a senior foreign ministry official or spokesman – the usual conduits for attacks against the US – is widely seen as a move aimed at leaving room for diplomacy down the road.
The recently lifted restrictions date back to 1979, and initially limited South Korea to missiles with a maximum flight range of 180km carrying warheads no heavier than 500kg, but were revised four times in the intervening decades to extend the range cap, scrap the warhead weight limit and lift a ban on the use of solid fuel for space launch vehicles.
Seoul had agreed to the limits in return for securing access to US missile technologies.
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Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies said the KCNA article represented “a carefully calibrated reaction” to the Biden-Moon summit and the lifting of the missile guidelines, adding it was “aimed at avoiding stirring up the situation while continuing contacts with the US behind the curtain”.
“At the same time, this gives a hint as to what the North would say when it comes back to table [in regards to] the presumed US double-standards and hostile policies, as well as its move to build up missile networks in the region,” he said.
