North Korea Vows to Bolster Nuclear Deterrent Citing US–South Korea Military Drills

The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea building in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Aug. 23, 2018. Carl Court/Getty Images

North Korea has said a recent joint military exercise by South Korean and U.S. forces was a “rehearsal” for targeting the reclusive state in a nuclear war.

As a result, Pyongyang asserted that it would ramp up its efforts to strengthen its own atomic deterrent, state-owned media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday.

Kim Jong Sik, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, said that the annual Iron Mace exercise showed that the United States still had a “wild ambition to stifle North Korea with nukes.”

“The military drill with an aggressive codename is the most hideous nuclear war rehearsal aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK,” he said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the name the ruling regime calls the country.

He added that this exercise and other South Korean–U.S. joint military actions demonstrate why Pyongyang must continuously expand its nuclear arsenal to effectively counter such so-called threats.

“The reality teaches once again the underlying truth that strength is peace and peace is guaranteed only by strength,” Kim said, describing North Korea’s policy of boosting its nuclear arsenal as “immutable.”

Iron Mace, first held in 2024, is described as a discussion-based exercise in which the two militaries jointly operate their nuclear and conventional forces to counter and deter North Korea’s nuclear threat.

South Korea and the United States conducted this year’s exercise at the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry described Kim’s statement as a reiteration of the North’s established position.

Ministry spokesperson Yoon Min-ho told a press briefing that “substantively, we assess that North Korea has reaffirmed its longstanding position of condemning U.S.-led combined military exercises as hostile acts against the North and using them to justify strengthening its own nuclear deterrent,” according to daily newspaper The Korea Herald.

The Epoch Times contacted the U.S. Department of War for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated since a landmine exploded in the demilitarized zone in September, injuring several South Korean troops.

The U.N. Command, the body that formally decides whether the armistice has been breached, determined that the blast was Pyongyang’s fault.

Seoul has since demanded an apology, de-mined the site, and test-fired a hypersonic missile to ensure it’s prepared to respond to threats. It also proposed military talks with North Korea to de-escalate tensions.

Pyongyang has not yet acknowledged Seoul’s offer, dismissing the issue of the landmine explosion as a “farce,” and threatened to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border before the end of October; however, the South Korean military, as of Nov. 2, has not detected any such broadcasts, according to The Korea Herald.

Loudspeaker broadcasts are an old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare tactic the two Koreas have occasionally used against one another during periods of confrontation.

Since taking office last year, South Korea’s liberal government, led by President Lee Jae-myung, stopped such broadcasts as part of efforts to improve ties with its communist neighbor, with North Korea later halting its own broadcasts.

However, Seoul has said that if Pyongyang resumes such broadcasts, it would do the same in response, and stressed that it will do what is necessary to protect its borders.

Although not actively involved in open conflict, North and South Korea technically remain at war.

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