November 19, 2025
SEOUL – North Korea on Tuesday warned it would take “more justified and realistic countermeasures” against South Korea and the United States, castigating the allied leaders’ summit statement and the annual defense ministers’ communique as a “confrontational declaration.”
South Korea’s presidential office was quick to respond to the North’s position on the matter, insisting it wanted to improve bilateral relations.
“(South Korea) has no intention of hostilities or confrontation toward the North and plans to work consistently to ease tensions and to rebuild trust,” the presidential office said in a statement.
The presidential office also said that cooperation with the US is aimed at strengthening national security and to protect South Korea’s interests, adding that the allies would continue to cooperate for peace in the region.
Pyongyang’s warning, delivered through its strictly controlled state media, notably came less than a day after Seoul made a public proposal for military-to-military talks on Monday afternoon to clarify the Military Demarcation Line and ease tensions along the inter-Korean border.
Taken together, the timing of Pyongyang’s statement coupled with its framing of the allied documents as justification for bolstering its military posture is widely seen as signaling a shift toward a harder line rather than engaging with Seoul’s overture for de-escalation.
Analysts expect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to lay out a more explicit strategic course in the coming months, including at the Ninth Party Congress slated for early next year.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency issued a commentary that singled out both the joint fact sheet that followed the Gyeongju summit between the South Korean and US leaders on Oct. 29 and the joint statement from the 57th South Korea–US Security Consultative Meeting. Both documents were released Friday.
In an English-language commentary titled “Confrontational Declaration of the US-ROK Alliance, ” North Korea framed its own military buildup as justified: “The US and the ROK are openly ignoring the DPRK’s legitimate security concern and aggravating regional tension,” it said.
The ROK and DPRK respectively stand for the official names of South and North Korea — the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The DPRK will take more justified and realistic countermeasures to defend the sovereignty and security interests of the state and regional peace, corresponding to the fact that the confrontational intention of the US and the ROK to remain hostile towards the DPRK was formulated as their policy once again,” the commentary read.
The KCNA commentary took aim at US-South Korea agreements on tariffs and security laid out in the two documents, including the leaders’ reaffirmation in the joint fact sheet of their commitment to North Korea’s “complete denuclearization.”
In the security-related sections, its strongest condemnation was directed at the US decision to approve South Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear-powered submarine, blasting it as a “serious development that destabilizes the military security situation in the Asia-Pacific region.”
“The ROK’s possession of nuclear submarine is a strategic move for ‘its own nuclear weaponization’ and this is bound to cause a ‘nuclear domino phenomenon’ in the region and spark a hot arms race,” the KCNA commentary read.
Observers noted that the statement used unusually calibrated and restrained language and was issued as a media commentary — a format that sits below an official statement in North Korean hierarchy.
Yet analysts in Seoul cautioned that the restrained tone is not necessarily a reassuring sign.
“North Korea is currently focused on reviewing its five-year economic development plan and its defense development plans, while concentrating on preparations for the Ninth Party Congress,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
“This internal agenda may explain its restrained tone for now, but North Korea is expected to further accelerate preparations for a hard-line, tit-for-tat confrontation once the congress concludes.”
Lim further explained the commentary’s “unusual calmness — even its cynical observer’s perspective bordering on resignation” signals “a structural change in North Korea’s perception of South Korea and the US” following the Gyeongju summit.
“The commentary reaffirms North Korea’s view that South Korea is no longer a negotiating counterpart, especially with the summit further deepening South Korea’s dependence on the US,” Lim said. “The commentary shows that North Korea’s conviction that it will ‘no longer deal with South Korea’ has only been further solidified.”
Observers also noted that the KCNA commentary appears intended to check the recent improvement in Seoul-Beijing relations following the first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
At the same time, the commentary signals North Korea’s push to strengthen its strategic alignment with China. North Korea and China have been on a trajectory of mending ties, highlighted by Kim Jong-un’s visit to China in September — his first since 2019 — and his meeting with Xi.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, noted that the commentary highlighted elements directly touching on China’s strategic interests.
The KCNA commentary notably took issue with multiple passages in the joint fact sheet — widely deemed as being effectively aimed at checking China, without explicitly naming it — including references to freedom of navigation, preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and opposing unilateral changes to the status quo.
“Depending on how China positions itself toward the US and South Korea going forward, North Korea may use this issue either as a basis for strategic coordination with Beijing or as leverage to constrain the Seoul-Beijing relationship,” Hong said.
“High-level exchanges between North Korea and China aimed at strategic communication could take place in the near future.”
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