US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood, addressing the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, refused to mince his words as he hit out at Washington’s nuclear rivals and issued a terrifying warning and North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated weapons programme.
He said: “Russia, China and North Korea are growing their stockpiles, increasing the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategies, and – in some cases – pursuing the development of new nuclear capabilities to threaten other peaceful nations.”
He then warned Pyongyang “may now be only months away from the capability to strike the US with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles”.
The only way to address the “urgent and unpredictable threat to the United States, its allies and partners” posed by North Korea is, according to Mr Wood, to ensure the hermit state’s nuclear programme is “completely, verifiably and irreversibly eliminated”.
In response, North Korea accused the US of seeking to aggravate the delicate situation on the Korean peninsula by “deploying large nuclear assets” nearby.
Pyongyang diplomat Ju Yong Chol said the scale of the US military enforcements shows “they are designed to make a preemptive strike against the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea].”
Ju said: “US officials including the defence secretary and the CIA director repeatedly talked about DPRK nuclear and missile threat to justify their argument for a military option and a new concept of a so-called ‘bloody nose’, a limited pre-emptive strike on the DPRK is under consideration within the US administration.”
North Korea launched a series of ballistic missiles in 2017 as well as carrying out its biggest-ever nuclear test, prompting fears across the globe about the Kim regime’s ability to attack the international community.
Estimates on the size of North Korea’s arsenal vary but it is likely to be dwarfed by the weapons caches of its rivals.
The US has 450 silo-based Minuteman III missiles, while Russia has 369 missiles based in silos or mobile launchers.
China, meanwhile, has between 55 and 65 missiles deployed in an underground tunnel network.
Last month Pyongyang warned the US it has a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deterrent to thwart any attack from its enemies.
Han Tae Song, North Korea’s Ambassador to the UN, told the Conference on Disarmament that last year’s nuclear test allowed his country to “perfect a national nuclear force” in a transparent manner.
“Thus DPRK [North Korea] at last came to possess a powerful and reliable war deterrent,” he told the Geneva forum.
“I am proudly saying that DPRK’s nuclear force is capable of frustrating and countering any nuclear threats from the US and it constitutes a powerful deterrent that prevents the US from starting an adventurous war.”
He went on to add that as a “responsible nuclear power”, North Korea would not use its nuclear weapons unless foreign states violated its sovereignty or interests.
In response, US disarmament ambassador Mr Wood said Washington would never recognise the secretive country as a nuclear power and told Pyongyang exactly what it must to to be welcomed back to the international community.
He said: “The United States will not recognise North Korea as a nuclear weapon state.
“If the North wishes to return and be in the good graces of the international community, it knows what it has to do, it has to take steps toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”
In an earlier speech on Tuesday, United Nations disarmament official Izumi Nakamitsu welcomed an easing of tensions between North and South Korea but called for further steps towards removing nuclear weapons from the divided peninsula.