The Pentagon warns against underestimating North Korea. The US military must be prepared as North Korea continues to expand its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons arsenal, Jennifer Walsh, US assistant secretary of defense for homeland security and global security, said in a statement to Congress on Tuesday.
“North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons threatens international stability and weakens the global treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” it says in Walsh’s statement.
The American armed forces should be “ready” if Kim Jong Un (37) wanted to use weapons of mass destruction in the course of or to avert a conflict on the Korean peninsula. Washington plans to train the US armed forces for appropriate situations.
Part of the blame for the dangerous situation: China. The country sluts on national export controls and sanction regulations, said Walsh. Chinese companies and individuals supplied usable material for armament to North Korea, among others.
Joe Biden sees North Korea as a “serious threat”
A predecessor of Walsh had already warned of precisely this situation in December: The pandemic offers the authoritarian regime a unique opportunity to import material that would otherwise be subject to international sanctions.
“North Korea could buy material from the West or China that is necessary for the development of vaccines, but which can just as well be used for biological weapons,” says Andrew Weber, who was Deputy Secretary of Defense for nuclear weapons under US President Barack Obama (58) , chemical and biological defense programs, at the time. Now the suspicion seems to be confirmed.
Just a few days before Walsh’s statement, Kim Jong Un had harshly criticized the US government. North Korea’s rulers criticized the “hostile policies” of US President Joe Biden (78), who described North Korea as a “serious threat”. (kin)