The US has no right to single out Pyongyang when speaking about nuclear threats, since the country is in fact the “main offender in nuclear proliferation,” North Korea’s permanent mission to the United Nations said in a statement published Wednesday.
It came in response to comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday at the 10th Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), currently underway at the UN Headquarters.
“Given the fact that the US is the main offender in nuclear proliferation, the fact that it is making allegations about anyone’s ‘nuclear threats’ is the peak of audacity,” the statement reads, as quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Blinken said during the conference that Pyongyang “continues to expand its unlawful nuclear programme” and “is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.”
The US keeps contributing in the proliferation of nuclear weapons as part of a strategy to ensure its “hegemony,” the North Korean statement claims. It also noted that “the United States cannot deny it has transferred nuclear-powered submarine technology to Australia, nor that it has given its consent for Israel acquiring nuclear weapons.”