North Korea said on Tuesday that an agreement between South Korea and the United States to build nuclear-powered submarines would create a “nuclear domino” effect.
Last week, South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung announced a security and trade deal with Washington, including proposals to emphasize the development of nuclear-powered ships.
Seoul said it “has received support to expand our authority over uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing.”
What is North Korea’s reaction to the nuclear sub-deal?
In its first comments reacting to the agreement, Pyongyang said the submarine deal was “a dangerous attempt at confrontation”.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, “The agreement is a serious development that destabilizes the military security situation in the Asia-Pacific region beyond the Korean Peninsula and leads to a situation of impossible nuclear containment in the global arena.”
The statement added, “The joint agreement documents released for the first time since the US and South Korea’s regime change indicate that the US-South Korea will remain confrontational for us… and the US-South Korea alliance will evolve into an even more dangerous one, indicating a more unstable regional security situation.”
Seoul’s possession of nuclear submarines “is bound to cause a ‘nuclear domino phenomenon’ in the region and fuel a heated arms race,” the government said, adding it now means “the DPRK (North Korea) will take more appropriate and realistic countermeasures.”
North Korean state media said last month that it had conducted the ninth and final test launch of a ballistic engine, indicating that intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests may soon take place.
olive branch of south korea
Tuesday’s reaction from North Korea came a day after Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang to stop border clashes, the first offer of its kind in seven years.
Since becoming president in June this year, Lee has offered to hold wide-ranging discussions with the North without any preconditions, a sharp reversal from the hardline stance adopted by his predecessor, Yun Suk Yeol, who was impeached in April 2025 after a failed attempt to declare martial law in December 2024.
Edited by: Elisabeth Schumacher