North Korea warns denuclearization would lead to 'accelerated war' in possible message to Beijing

North Korea issued a response to the trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan and China on Monday, warning that any attempt to interfere with its nuclear weapons program would lead to “accelerated war.” Photo provided by the South Korean President’s Office

SEOUL, May 28 (UPI) — North Korea reacted angrily to the trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan and China, calling it a “serious political provocation” likely to accelerate a military confrontation, in a message that Seoul said was intended to the North’s closest ally, Beijing.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a summit in Seoul on Monday and reaffirmed their commitment to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

“If anyone attempts to deny or violate the constitutional position of our country as a nuclear-weapon state… it will be considered the most serious attack on sovereignty,” said the North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement released hours after the summit.

The North’s statement cited the trilateral summit and called the denuclearization discussion a “blatant challenge to the DPRK’s sovereignty and wanton interference in its internal affairs.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“Denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula means a power vacuum and accelerated war,” said the statement released by the Korean Central News Agency.

The summit, the first in more than four years between the Northeast Asian neighbors, did not explicitly call on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

“We reiterated our positions on regional peace and stability, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the kidnapping issue, respectively,” the joint statement said.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, suggested Tuesday that the isolated regime was showing its displeasure with Beijing, its main ally and main trading partner.

“Even though the North’s reprimands were focused on the South, it was rare for North Korea to publicly denounce a (diplomatic) meeting attended by China,” a ministry official told local reporters on condition of anonymity. according to the Yonhap news agency.

China has not openly supported the North’s nuclear weapons program, but international observers widely believe it is helping Pyongyang circumvent economic sanctions.

At the same time, Beijing has not thrown its full weight behind a nascent alliance between North Korea and Russia, which the United States and its allies say results in arms sales and transfers of technology.

North Korea’s strong reaction “clearly shows that the ROK-Japan-China summit joint statement was meaningful,” a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

“As confirmed by numerous UN Security Council resolutions, North Korea’s complete abandonment of nuclear weapons and its denuclearization constitute the consensus and unified goal of the international community,” said the Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk during a press briefing.

“North Korea will never be recognized as possessing nuclear weapons,” Lim added. “Recognizing that North Korea’s nuclear and missile development will only harm its own security and economic development, we urge North Korea to return to the path of denuclearization as soon as possible.”

North Korea also attempted to place a reconnaissance satellite into orbit Monday hours after the summit, in defiance of international warnings and in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The launch failed when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight.