China Denounces US Nuclear Deployment To Korea As “An Excuse To Create Tension”

China has issued a blistering statement in response to the agreement between Washington and Seoul for the US to send a nuclear ballistic missile submarine to South Korea. Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said it shows the US is undermining the nuclear non-proliferation system and damaging regional peace and stability. 

“The United States has put regional security at risk and intentionally used the issue of the [Korean] peninsula as an excuse to create tension,” Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing.

“What the US does is full of Cold War thinking, provoking bloc confrontation, undermining the nuclear non-proliferation system, damaging the strategic interests of other countries, exacerbating tensions on the Korean peninsula, undermining regional peace and stability, and running counter to the goal of the denuclearization of the peninsula,” the Thursday statement said.

She said it also highlighted Washington’s “selfish geopolitical interests” which puts the world at risk, given the new deployment of “US strategic assets”. 

South Korean President Yoon’s visit to the White House on Wednesday culminated in the “Washington Declaration” agreement for deterring North Korea from carrying out an attack on the south, by erecting a “nuclear umbrella” that includes the Pentagon sending bombers and aircraft carriers, or nuclear submarines. 

A nuclear-armed submarine has not docked in the Korean peninsula since the 1980s. President Biden on Wednesday attempted to introduce some nuance which is surely not going to provide any level of comfort for the Kim Jong-Un regime: 

“We’re not going to be stationing nuclear weapons on the peninsula,” he said in a joint press conference with Yoon at the White House. “But we will have visits to ports, visits of nuclear submarines and things like that.”

This is insane. Biden and his militaristic advisers are pushing an extremely dangerous policy in Korea. Once a hawk, always a hawk. “S. Korea, U.S. to form nuclear consultative body amid N. Korea’s growing threats.” https://t.co/kneGVsWj2R

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) April 26, 2023

Now the region is bracing for an expected fierce response from Pyongyang, likely in the form of more threatening ballistic missile tests. There’s also speculation that Kim will order a nuclear weapons test, which would mark a first since 2017.