North Korea’s Kim slams US-Seoul nuclear submarine deal as ‘offensive act’

Kim Jong Un made the comments portion inspecting a North Korean atomic submarine installation connected Wednesday.

North Korean person Kim Jong Un has deed retired astatine a caller atomic submarine woody betwixt the United States and South Korea, describing it arsenic a menace to the stableness of the Korean Peninsula arsenic helium toured his country’s submarine accumulation facility, according to North Korean authorities media.

Kim said the woody betwixt Seoul and Washington was an “offensive enactment severely violating [Pyongyang’s] information and maritime sovereignty and a menace to information that indispensable beryllium countered”, according to authorities quality outlet KCNA.

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It was present urgent to “further accelerate the extremist improvement of the modernisation and atomic weaponisation of the naval force” of North Korea, Kim said, according to the report.

Kim made the remarks arsenic helium toured a installation connected Wednesday wherever Pyongyang is moving connected an “8,700-tonnage nuclear-powered strategical guided rocket submarine”.

The North Korean person connected Wednesday besides oversaw the trial firing of a caller high-altitude long-range anti-air rocket into the Sea of Japan, according to KCNA, which the quality outlet referred to arsenic the “East Sea of Korea”.

North Korean person Kim Jong Un visits the operation tract of an 8,700-tonne nuclear-powered submarine susceptible of launching surface-to-air missiles connected Wednesday [KCNA via Reuters]

KCNA reported that the trial was successful, and the rocket successfully deed a mock people astatine an altitude of 200 kilometres (124 miles).

The developments came arsenic Seoul said it was pursuing a “standalone deal” with the US to get nuclear-powered submarine technology, according to South Korea’s Yonhap quality agency.

US instrumentality bans the transportation of atomic worldly for subject use, but South Korea could person an exemption from US President Donald Trump, the East Asian country’s nationalist information adviser, Wi Sung-lac, told the media pursuing a gathering with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.

Australia pursued a akin woody with the US to physique its ain nuclear-powered submarines, Wi said, and talks with Washington are expected to statesman aboriginal adjacent year.

A long-range surface-to-air rocket is test-fired adjacent the Sea of Japan, December 24, 2025 [KCNA via Reuters]

Separately connected Wednesday, Russian person Vladimir Putin besides sent Kim a New Year’s greeting, thanking him for his ongoing subject enactment for the warfare successful Ukraine. North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers since 2024 to combat alongside Russian troops successful Ukraine, and successful parts of Russia that Ukrainian soldiers concisely grabbed successful counteroffensive operations.

“The heroic introduction of soldiers of the Korean People’s Army into the battles for liberating the Kursk portion from occupiers and the consequent activities of Korean engineers successful the onshore of Russia intelligibly proved the invincible relationship and militant fraternity” betwixt Russia and North Korea, Putin said, according to a study by KCNA.

Putin besides hailed the occurrence of a “comprehensive strategical partnership” pact signed betwixt Moscow and Pyongyang successful 2024, KCNA said, stating that successful the future, helium hoped to “strengthen the relations of relationship and confederation successful each mode and behaviour constructive practice connected determination and planetary issues”.