2024.2.3.

Ri Ji Song, a researcher of the Society for International Politics Study in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, released an article "Reckless moves increasing the danger of a nuclear war".

Its full text is as follows:

The fact that the U.S. will deploy again its nuclear weapons, which it withdrew from Britain 15 years ago, has been opened to public, sparking off worldwide sensation.

The U.S. and Britain take a vague stand on the planned redeployment of nuclear weapons, asserting that it is their long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons at a specified military base. However, media and experts are making the U.S. redeployment of nuclear weapons a fait accompli, in connection with the fact that high-ranking figures of Britain and NATO have recently called for coping with a potential war with Russia.

In actuality, the facility expansion and reinforcement work have already started at the Lakenheath Air Force Base in the UK, where the U.S. nuclear bombs of B61 series were stocked in the past and F-35 fighters capable of carrying the B61-12 are deployed. And a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense has reportedly recognized the fact.

In this regard, the international community is expressing serious concern that the U.S. moves for bolstering up nuclear force in the European region will further chill the relations between the West and Russia and increase the danger of a nuclear war in the region.

The U.S. nuclear arms buildup in Europe has not started today.

The U.S. worked out a plan to replace the outdated B61 nuclear bombs deployed in Europe with the latest version B61-12 at least 10 years ago, and spent more than 10 billion U.S. dollars on this project.

Pentagon conducted ground test and simulated flight test already in 2013 and air dropping tests by F-15, F-16, F-35 and other types of fighters from 2015. And it announced that they would start of the serial production of those bombs in the fiscal 2021 and complete their deployment for action by 2024.

In November last year, the U.S. officially approved the use of B61-12 in military operations and included Britain in its list of nuclear weapons storage sites. And the U.S. deputy secretary of Defense made a tour of the Lakenheath Air Force Base to learn about its infrastructure facilities, revealing their scheme to redeploy nuclear weapons in the UK.

The U.S. is going to redeploy its nuclear weapons 15 years after it had to withdraw them, modernized and maintained for more than 50 years, because of the anti-war and anti-nuclear atmosphere in the UK in 2008. This poses a serious threat to international peace and security.

It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to establish a global deployment network of nukes, regarding them as a means for maintaining its hegemony, and thus contain its "rivals" and, at the same time, hold more tightly the lifeline of its allies under the pretext of "bolstering up its deterrence".

What is more dangerous is the fact that the U.S. is mulling deploying the tactical nuclear weapons including B61-12 in the Asia-Pacific region, too.

It is well evidenced by the fact that the U.S. and the ROK are frequently making reckless remarks that as B-2 stealth nuclear strategic bombers capable of carrying and operating B61-12 have been deployed on Guam, it can be used for any future operation in the Korean peninsula.

These moves are turning the Asia-Pacific region, where the world’s nuclear weapons states are aggregate densely, into the world’s biggest hotspot with constant danger of a nuclear war outbreak.

The U.S. expands the sphere of deployment of the latest nuclear bombs at a time when military confrontation among countries and forces is escalating and the international situation is getting ever-more acute in different parts of the world. This more clearly shows the U.S. true colors as the chief criminal of nuclear proliferation, mastermind of nuclear arms race and chieftain of nuclear war outbreak.

All the facts go to prove that the DPRK’s efforts for bolstering up the nuclear war deterrence are an indispensable contribution to resolutely frustrating the U.S. and its allies’ undisguised provocations on a worldwide scale and maintaining the strategic balance and stability of the world.

The international community should heighten vigilance against the U.S. criminal moves for deploying its nuclear weapons in other countries and more bitterly condemn them as they are driving the whole world closer into the threshold of a nuclear war.

Rodong Sinmun