North Korea has denounced the United States’ decision to help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines, describing the decision as extremely dangerous and could lead to a nuclear arms race.

The head of the foreign news department of the North Korean Foreign Ministry was quoted by Pyongyang’s Central News Agency as saying that his country “will take similar countermeasures, if this decision has a negative, even slight, impact on the country’s security.”

Last Wednesday, the United States announced the launch of a new trilateral security partnership with Australia and Britain, noting that the two countries would also work to provide Australia with “conventionally armed” nuclear submarines.

“These are very undesirable and dangerous actions that will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region, and trigger a series of nuclear arms race,” the North Korean official said in his statement, adding that Pyongyang was “closely studying the background of the US decision.”

Pyongyang criticized the Biden administration, saying that “the US double standards undermine the international order and universally accepted norms and threaten global peace and stability.”

In this context, the North Korean official supported the criticisms of China and other neighboring countries, which see that this new tripartite security agreement “destroys regional stability and the international system for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” stressing that “the prevailing situation shows once again that strengthening (Chinese) national defense capabilities is a A long-term perspective that should not be neglected even a little, in order to confront the ever-changing international security environment.”

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden made it clear that these submarines for Australia will operate with nuclear power only, and will not be equipped with nuclear weapons, indicating that consultations on Australia’s acquisition of these submarines will take place during the next eighteen months.

(agencies)