North Korea’s defence minister warned on Saturday that the country is ready to take further “offensive action” after the United States and South Korea condemned its latest ballistic missile launch. The firing took place on Friday, just over a week after US President Donald Trump, during a regional tour, expressed interest in meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — a proposal Pyongyang did not acknowledge.
Defence minister No Kwang Chol accused Washington of becoming “brazen” in its military activities, claiming the US is deliberately heightening political and military tensions in the region. “We will show more offensive action against the enemies’ threat,” he said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Tensions escalated further this week when US Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and his South Korean counterpart visited the Demilitarised Zone. Both sides reaffirmed their “strong combined defence posture” and close cooperation. Shortly after, the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington arrived in the South Korean port of Busan for logistics support and crew rest, a deployment North Korea said was sharply aggravating the security situation on the Korean Peninsula. No claimed Hegseth’s DMZ visit was an attempt to “fan up war hysterics”.
The US Indo-Pacific Command responded to Friday’s launch by warning that it again demonstrated the “destabilising impact” of Pyongyang’s actions. South Korea’s military also issued a strong condemnation, urging the North to cease behaviour that inflames tensions between the two Koreas.
Adding to the strategic uncertainty, Trump last week approved Seoul’s proposal to develop a nuclear-powered submarine, which analysts say would mark a major leap in South Korea’s defence capabilities and could invite a fierce response from Pyongyang. South Korean lawmakers, citing intelligence briefings, also revealed that North Korea appears technically ready to conduct what would be its seventh nuclear test whenever Kim Jong Un decides to move forward.
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