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21-02-2025
SEOUL: North Korean state media on Thursday criticized the United States for a nuclear submarine deal with Australia under the AUKUS partnership signed in 2021, calling it a “threat to regional peace.”
A commentary carried by KCNA said Washington should be wary of consequences for what it said were nuclear alliances, naming AUKUS and the trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan.
Australia just made its first $500 million payment to the US under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.
Under AUKUS, Australia will pay the United States $3 billion to boost the capacity of the US submarine industry, and Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the early 2030s.
It also argued the US sees North Korea as an obstacle to its establishment of hegemony in the region and said nuclear states will not sit idly by, referring to itself.
North Korea has been criticizing the trilateral military cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the US and has called the relationship “the Asian version of NATO”.
Australia has made its first $500 million payment to the United States under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal ahead of a meeting between their defence heads on Friday in Washington.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said the gesture showed Canberra is paying its way as a security partner.
Marles will be the first foreign counterpart hosted by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth since his confirmation in the role. They are expected to discuss security in the Indo Pacific region and the growing US military presence in Australia.
In early meetings with the Trump Administration, Australia has emphasised plans to double its annual defence budget over the next decade to AU$100 billion ($63 billion) and notes that the United States has its second-largest trade surplus of $32 billion with Australia.
Under AUKUS, Australia will pay the United States $3 billion to boost the capacity of the US submarine industry, and Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine.
Australia transferred the $500 million after a call between Marles and Hegseth on January 29.
Marles said in a statement the payment “is an important investment, it is about Australia paying its way when it comes to AUKUS by helping to uplift the US submarine industrial base so that Virginia class submarines are available to be transferred to Australia”.
Australia has previously said it will spend AU$18 billion upgrading a network of northern defence bases used by the U.S. military, and A$8 billion on a defence naval base in Western Australia to support rotations of US nuclear powered submarines.
Talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on AUKUS, Australia’s biggest defence project, had been “very positive”, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said last month.
The United States, Australia, India and Japan recommitted to working together on Tuesday, after the first meeting of the China-focused “Quad” grouping’s top diplomats since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
In a joint statement after the talks in Washington, hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day in the job, the four nations said officials would meet regularly to prepare for an upcoming leaders’ summit in India, expected this year. (Int’l News Desk)
