North Korea published a white paper accusing South Korea of taking actions that increase the risk of nuclear war.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA on November 3 released a white paper, accusing South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol of putting the country on the brink of nuclear conflict through his policies toward Pyongyang.
The document, compiled by the North’s Institute for the Study of the Rival State, criticized Yoon’s “reckless remarks” on conflict, abandoning elements of the inter-Korean agreement, engaging in nuclear conflict planning with the United States, and seeking closer ties with Japan and NATO.
“South Korea’s military moves will paradoxically only lead to North Korea’s exponential buildup of nuclear weapons and further development of its nuclear attack capabilities,” the white paper said.
Mr. Yoon, a conservative politician, has taken a hard line on North Korea, which has developed its nuclear arsenal and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
South Korean authorities have accused North Korea of raising tensions with its weapons tests. South Korea and its allies have also accused North Korea of supporting Russia in the conflict in Ukraine, a claim both Moscow and Pyongyang have repeatedly denied.
North Korea considers South Korea and the US military exercises in the region as hostile acts and threats to Pyongyang.
North Korea has also taken steps to cut off inter-Korean relations, redefining South Korea as a hostile state and saying unification is no longer possible.
Last month, North Korea blew up several sections of inter-Korean roads and railways on the border between the two countries, and satellite imagery shows that Pyongyang has since built large trenches along the former highways.
The two Koreas are technically still at war after the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
