North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un delivered a threatening tirade against the United States to mark the anniversary of the communist Korean People’s Army (KPA) this weekend, blaming the United States for all of the “world’s big and small disputes and tragedies of bloodshed” and promising to build more nuclear warheads.
The screed was Kim’s first extended commentary on the United States since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. His regime, which maintains tight control of all information reaching its citizens, informed them that Trump was inaugurated in late January without having reported on the election itself and had largely abstained from commentary before state media published an outraged condemnation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month in response to him describing North Korea as a “rogue state.”
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s flagship state news outlets, reported that Kim made his remarks during a visit to his Defense Ministry to celebrate the 77th birthday of the KPA. The coverage did not mention Trump by name or offer any specific threats beyond suggesting a growing potential for world war and Kim vowing to build more nuclear weapons. North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program is the reason Rubio referred to the country as a rogue state.
After multiple paragraphs describing the alleged “great emotion and joy” soldiers displayed at being in Kim’s presence, welcoming him with “stormy cheers of ‘hurrah!'”, KCNA finally summarized Kim’s remarks, an ominous prediction of global conflict. Kim mentioned in passing the ongoing war in Gaza, blaming the United States for that conflict (which began after jihadist Hamas terrorists invaded Israel in 2023). He also claimed America was single-handedly responsible for Russia invading Ukraine and vowed North Korea’s continued participation on Moscow’s behalf in that conflict.
“Summarizing the features of the world-wide changes in political, military and geopolitical structure including the surrounding environment of the state,” KCNA narrated, “he [Kim] stressed the need to more highly develop the war response posture of the DPRK’s [North Korea’s] armed forces to proactively cope with any variable security situation.”
“The DPRK does not want unnecessary tension of the regional situation,” Kim claimed, “but will take sustained countermeasures to ensure the regional military balance out of the aspiration for preventing the outbreak of a new war and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula.”
Kim claimed that America was “standing in the center behind the scene of the war machine” in Ukraine and blamed it for both the Ukraine war and “the Gaza Strip and Syria,” where the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted dictator Bashar Assad in December. The North Korean regime enjoyed a longstanding alliance with Assad as part of the greater anti-American, Iran-led regional axis, making his demise a significant diplomatic setback for Pyongyang.
“The geopolitical crises brought about by the U.S. in different parts of the world are further increasing the danger of the outbreak of a new world war,” Kim predicted, “and having a serious influence on not only international peace and security but also all other spheres of human activities.”
Kim reportedly promised to remain loyal to the Russian cause in Ukraine, where thousands of North Korean troops are believed to be fighting, and to continue illicitly developing nuclear weapons.
“Referring to a series of new plans for rapidly bolstering all deterrences including nuclear forces, he clarified once again the unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces,” Kim emphasized.
The speech followed a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to the White House last week in which Ishiba and Trump discussed North Korea in detail. KCNA did not include mention of the visit in its coverage of the Kim speech, but Japan is second only to the United States as a target of vitriol from North Korean state media and often presented as North Korea’s most dangerous immediate enemy.
Trump and Ishiba published a lengthy joint statement after their meeting on Friday with an extensive segment on addressing the threat of North Korea. Trump and Ishiba, the statement read, “expressed their serious concerns over and the need to address the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) nuclear and missile programs.”
Both called for “the complete denuclearization of the DPRK” and an end to North Korea’s “malicious cyber activities and the DPRK’s increasing military cooperation with Russia.”
“In addition, both countries affirmed the importance of the Japan-U.S.-ROK trilateral partnership in responding to the DPRK and upholding regional peace and prosperity,” the statement continued. “Japan reiterated its determination to achieve an immediate resolution of the abductions issue, which the United States supported.”
North Korea “will always be a topic, especially with Japan,” Trump told reporters before his private meeting with Ishiba.
Trump established a unique relationship with North Korea during his first term in office. He met with Kim personally on multiple occasions, a rarity for an American president and North Korean dictator, and became the first American head of state to step on North Korean soil in 2019.
