The US is seeking to bend the entire world to its will and in doing so is increasing the risk of a nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on Thursday.
In a speech at a national defense exhibition, Kim accused Washington of abusing its power by claiming a sphere of influence that covers the entire world, and of using military threats against dissenting nations, including North Korea, the KCNA state news agency reported.
Having attempted negotiations with Washington in the past, Pyongyang is certain that the US is unwilling to coexist with nations that do not share its ideology, Kim assessed. The US “aggressive and hostile policy toward North Korea will never change,” he stated.
The world today is ravaged by multiple armed conflicts and is “the most chaotic and violent since World War II,” Kim claimed. This means that “a country that has given up self-defense cannot be called a truly sovereign state” as it risks being “trampled by tyranny,” he added.
Domestically-developed North Korean weapons shown at the expo are on a par with modern foreign technology, ensuring the country’s safety, Kim said, praising their developers. They also have “righteous purpose and character,” which makes them superior to the arsenals created by “imperialist countries in their pursuit of slaughter, destruction, and economic gain,” he claimed.
Kim held three rounds of negotiations with then-US President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019. The diplomatic engagement was among the signature moves of the Republican politician’s first term in office. It facilitated a brief thaw on the Korean Peninsula, which has since been replaced with a period of hostility between the North and the South.
Trump secured a return to the White House in the US presidential election earlier this month, running on a promise to reduce American involvement in foreign armed conflicts.
Under the administration of US President Joe Biden, Washington and Seoul have resumed joint military exercises, which were suspended amid Trump’s outreach to Kim. Pyongyang considers such drills a major security threat, arguing that they could be used to disguise preparations for an invasion.