A spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned on Saturday that the United States’ update on its nuclear policy will have a “negative impact on the security situation and the nuclear disarmament system,” according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Tass reported Saturday that a spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, cited by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, accused the U.S. of being “obsessed with ensuring unilateral nuclear superiority.” The spokesperson added that “the move to update the nuclear policy of the US—a country that has the largest nuclear weapon arsenal in the world—will have a significant negative impact on the security situation and the nuclear disarmament system.”
The remarks came in response to reports of President Joe Biden’s revisions to a nuclear strategic document that redirects the U.S.’ deterrent strategy to focus on China’s nuclear arsenal expansion.
The strategic document, titled “Nuclear Employment Guidance,” was reportedly approved by Biden in March and is updated roughly every four years and is highly classified. The White House has not publicly announced that Biden approved the revisions.
Newsweek has reached out to the Institute for Disarmament and Peace department of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department via email on Sunday.
Earlier this summer, Pranay Vaddi, the National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, said the new strategy emphasizes “the need to deter Russia, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and North Korea simultaneously,” according to a report from The New York Times.
It is difficult to pinpoint the number of global nuclear arsenals. A 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates Russia has 5,580 nuclear warheads, the U.S. has 5,044 and China has 500, whereas the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says Russia and the U.S. possess 4,380 and 3,708, respectively. The U.S. government previously revealed in September 2023 that it had 3,748 nuclear warheads at the time.
Outside of the U.S., Russia, China, and North Korea, five other countries possess nuclear weapons. Washington believes Beijing is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal estimating that it could have over 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
“China is seriously concerned about the relevant report,” Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at recent press conference. In response to Biden’s updates to the “Nuclear Employment Guidance,” Mao added that Beijing maintained its nuclear arsenal at the minimum level required for national security, which was not at the same level as the U.S.
According to the aforementioned figures, Washington’s nuclear arsenal is second to Moscow’s.
The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in warfare, detonating two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. In the years that followed, during the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia engaged in a nuclear arms race.
“The US likes to speak about ‘nuclear threats’ from others without any context, while it is the US that is the most irresponsible player and the rogue state provoking a nuclear arms race and increasing the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict,” the North Korean spokesperson said, Tass reported.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which sparked a war that has now lasted over two-and-a-half-years, global tensions and threats of nuclear warfare have escalated. In addition to threats of nuclear warfare, fighting near nuclear power plants in Russia and Ukraine have raised concerns over potential meltdowns.
