Pyongyang Deplores South Korean President's Visit to US

On Wednesday, the leaders of South Korea and the US adopted the Washington Declaration that provides for the establishment of a regular bilateral consultation mechanism on extended deterrence and strategic planning. South Korea also secured a US promise to promptly deploy "the entire force of the alliance," including nuclear weapons, in the event of a nuclear attack by North Korea. Washington also assured Seoul it would use all measures, including nuclear weapons, in the case of aggression from Pyongyang, and promised to send nuclear missile submarines to the Korean Peninsula.

"This trip, aimed to draw up a sinister plan between the master and the stooge to annihilate the DPRK [North Korea], is the most hostile, aggressive and provocative, dangerous trip for a nuclear war... The 'Washington Declaration' on raising the practicality of the 'extended deterrence' provided by the US is a typical product of the heinous hostile policy towards the DPRK," KCNA stated.

The agency said that deterrence of North Korea was the main subject of the presidents' meeting. Creating of a consultative group on Seoul's and Washington's nuclear issues, extended deployment of US strategic assets, including nuclear submarines, on the Korean Peninsula, and strengthening "extended deterrence" by intensification of joint military drills makes a nuclear war against North Korea "a fait accompli" (an accomplished fact). For the first time, North Korea was openly called a target for a nuclear strike, KCNA stated.

"The traitor Yoon's visit to the US made it possible to reconfirm the hostile intention of the US and the puppets which can never be changed but has become more reckless. This shows that the DPRK should neither hesitate nor stop for even a little and even a moment to become more stronger and more thoroughly prepared... The dangerous nuclear war moves of the US and the puppet group running amuck in stifling the DPRK while denying its existence can never be pardoned, and they will have to pay dearly for their rash acts," KCNA said.

On Saturday, North Korean President Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who serves as a deputy head of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, said that the Washington Declaration would deteriorate global safety. She denounced US President Joe Biden's comment that any nuclear attack by Pyongyang on the US or its allies would end in a regime change in North Korea as the words of an "old man with no future." The South Korean Ministry of Unification criticized her statement as rude and far-fetched.

Pyongyang Deplores South Korean President's Visit to US, Accuses Sides of Provoking War