Chief of External Policy Office of DPRK Foreign Ministry Comments on U.S. Sale of Military Hardware

Pyongyang, June 13 (KCNA) — The chief of the External Policy Office of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Saturday gave the following answer to a written request of KCNA to comment about the U.S. approval to the sale of latest air-to-air missiles and associated equipment to the ROK:

Despite reasonable concern of the international community, the U.S. and the ROK are systematically tightening their military collusion and nexus to drive tensions in the Korean peninsula and its vicinity to an extreme.

It is a typical example that the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of latest air-to-air missiles and associated equipment worth nearly 300 million U.S. dollars to the ROK in the way of “Foreign Military Sales”.

Earlier, the U.S. administration approved the sale of new-type helicopters for naval operation, attack helicopters, precision guided bombs and other military hardware worth billions of U.S. dollars in less than a month, more openly revealing its intention to increase the ROK’s military potentials and thus drive it to the advanced post for intensified confrontation with regional countries.

This is only a part of the U.S. strategic attempt to deliver various kinds of weapons and military hardware worth 25 billion U.S. dollars to the ROK till 2030 and thus incite it to military confrontation with the DPRK and other regional countries.

The DPRK Foreign Ministry strongly denounces the U.S. and the ROK for rapidly accelerating arms buildup in a very worrisome direction to destroy the military balance in the Korean peninsula and threaten the regional security environment, warning of the grave consequences to be entailed by it.

The U.S. arms export just means war export and the introduction of U.S.-made weapons is little short of the accumulation of tension and confrontation.

In fiscal year 2025 alone, the export scale of weapons, the U.S. administration licensed through the “FMS” and direct commercial sale mode, amounted to more than 330 billion U.S. dollars and the number of arms transactions approved through the “FMS” reached more than 16 000.

The massive arms supply by the U.S. to the ROK, Japan and Taiwan is the root cause of aggravating military tension in the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, and its scope is expanding worldwide, forecasting the unstable prospect of global peace.

The gradually escalating U.S.-ROK military conspiracy and the U.S.-led arms buildup of collective character invite due vigilance and awakening among regional countries and serve as a sufficient reason for reinforcing corresponding defensive measures.

Clear is the stand of the DPRK to remove new threats and maintain the balance of strength in the region by steadily updating and bolstering its deterrent for self-defence to cope with the provocative arms buildup of the U.S. and its allies, and the DPRK will redouble its responsible efforts to defend peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region in the future, too. -0-

www.kcna.kp (2026.06.13.)