North Korea Says Biden Blundered By Calling Its Self-defense Efforts ‘Serious Threats’

By Staff, Agencies

After US President Joe Biden's speech to Congress, Pyongyang said the US will face “a very grave situation” because its leader “made a big blunder.”

“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as it had been done by the US for over half a century,” Kwon Jong-gun, North Korean Foreign Ministry director general for US affairs, said on Sunday.

North Korea made the remarks in response to Biden’s speech last Wednesday, when he referred to the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran as “serious threats” to American and global security. Biden said he will work closely with allies to address those threats through diplomacy and “stern deterrence.”

Kwon called Biden's position – referring to Pyongyang’s deterrence against “constant nuclear blackmail” as a “threat” – an “illogical” encroachment on North Korea’s sovereign right to self-defense. US nuclear war exercises held shortly after Biden's inauguration in January “proved in action who really threatens whom on the Korean peninsula and clearly showed that one must build a powerful deterrence to counter the US.”

A worsening crisis will spin out of control for the US if Washington retains “outdated policy from a Cold War-minded perspective and viewpoint,” Kwon said. Biden “made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint,” he added, and by disparaging Pyongyang in his first speech to Congress, the president made clear his hostile North Korean policies.

“We will be compelled to press for corresponding measures and, with time, the US will find itself in a very grave situation,” Kwon said.