韓国の原子力潜水艦保有計画は必ず頓挫する＝北朝鮮外務省・張錦哲第1次官声明

Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) — Jang Kum Chol, first vice-minister and director general of the Tenth Department of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, Wednesday issued the following press statement “The ROK’s scheme for possessing a nuclear submarine, which constitutes a new dangerous element to the security in the Asia-Pacific region, will certainly meet stranding”: The ROK’s scheme for possessing a nuclear submarine, which has recently entered the phase of practice, is amplifying the instability of the regional security environment. The ROK, which announced in May the “Jangbogo-N Project” for the development and introduction of its own nuclear submarine by the mid-2030s, is now intensifying its moves to implement it. At the first meeting of the “future defense strategy committee” held at the naval submarine command in Jinhae, South Kyongsang Province a few months ago, the chief executive of the ROK justified the development of nuclear submarine, claiming that the plan for building a nuclear submarine is an expression of the will to take responsibility for peace and security on the Korean peninsula. The ROK Ministry of National Defense, too, clarified that the nuclear submarine will use low-enriched uranium fuel and the whole process of development and building will take place at home. Thus, it officially declared that the development of nuclear submarine has switched over to the stage of practice from the planning stage. Early in June, a U.S. delegation led by the U.S. undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, which comprised officials of the State Department, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, visited the ROK to agree to accelerate the consultation on nuclear submarine and establish a tripartite cooperation framework for the introduction of small modular reactor between the U.S., Japan and the ROK. It is a typical example of the fact that the prior environment necessary for the ROK’s development of nuclear submarine is being created. The ROK’s persistent attempt to possess nuclear submarine can never be regarded as a defense measure to cope with someone’s “threat”. The ROK has secretly pushed ahead with its plan for building a nuclear submarine since 2003, more than 20 years ago. Such fact goes to prove that the ROK’s ambition to possess nuclear submarine is neither a “reflective measure” to respond to the DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons nor a matter of defensive nature to cope with the “regional threat”. Obviously, the ROK harbors another ambition. The ROK raised the issue of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel as an item of preferential solution prior to the design, hull building and reactor development of nuclear submarine and demanded the revision of the “U.S.-ROK Nuclear Agreement”. The fact hints at many things. It is the final goal of the ROK to secure the right to produce nuclear materials, free from the restraint of the item on reprocessing nuclear waste fuel and prohibiting uranium enrichment, and ultimately pave the way for making a leap forward to nuclear armament. The secret intention of the ROK, which is working hard to develop a nuclear submarine with its own nuclear armament in sight, can never be diluted, no matter how it talks about the “nuclear threat” from someone or “building up of self-defense capabilities”. The ROK’s possession of nuclear submarine will inevitably result in nuclear dominoes in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan has already disclosed its ambition not to exclude all possible options for the introduction of nuclear submarine, throwing off the mask of the “Three Non-Nuclear Principles” with the ROK’s scheme to possess nuclear submarine as an occasion. The ROK’s scheme to possess nuclear submarine is not a matter to be considered as the military ambition of a country. This is part of the U.S. great strategy to build an axis of nuclear hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region with the proliferation of nuclear submarine as a vehicle and thus restructure the military balance in the g