'Extremely undesirable' AUKUS pact can trigger 'nuclear arms race': North Korea

North Korea on Monday condemned the new security pact between the US, UK and Australia, terming it “extremely undesirable” and warning it could spark a “nuclear arms race.”

“These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear arms race,” a Foreign Ministry official said about the AUKUS deal, under which the US and UK will provide Australia technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Criticism from regional countries, including China, is “natural” and Pyongyang will “certainly take a corresponding counteraction,” the head of the ministry’s Foreign News section told the official Korean Central News Agency.

He said such “irresponsible” moves are capable of “destroying the peace and stability of the region and the international nuclear non-proliferation system and of catalyzing the arms race.”

The official also made a reference to the furious reaction from France, the longtime US ally that has slammed the deal as a “stab in the back.”

Excluded from the pact, France has been highly critical of the deal that leaves its existing contract with Australia to build 12 conventional submarines dead in the water.

Paris has since recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington.

The North Korean official said the move proves that “the US is the chief culprit toppling the international nuclear non-proliferation system,” adding that Washington’s “double-dealing attitude … seriously threatens world peace and stability.”

“We are closely looking into the background of the US decision and … will certainly take a corresponding counteraction in case it has even a little adverse impact on the security of our country,” he concluded.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid