Trump’s ‘hostile policy’ justifies nuclear build-up, North Korea says

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister accused Washington of stepping up its political and military provocations since Trump took office

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Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: Sputnik / Vladimir Smirnov / Pool via Reuters

Published: 6:35am, 4 Mar 2025Updated: 9:05am, 4 Mar 2025

North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, criticised the Trump administration for stepping up “provocations” and said it justified the nuclear state increasing its nuclear deterrent, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.

Kim criticised the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson’s visit to South Korea on Sunday, saying the action was part of a “policy of confrontation” against North Korea.

“As soon as its new administration appeared this year, the US has stepped up the political and military provocations against the DPRK, ‘carrying forward’ the former administration’s hostile policy,” Kim said.

The USS Carl Vinson, a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, docks at a naval base in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday. Photo: Yonhap/AFP

DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Hostile policy towards the DPRK pursued by the US at present is offering sufficient justification for the DPRK to indefinitely bolster … its nuclear war deterrent,” Kim said.

South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Kim Yo-jong’s comments were nothing more than deception to justify its nuclear missile development.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons are never acceptable, and the only way for North Korea to survive is to abandon its obsession and delusion about nuclear [weapons],” the ministry said in a statement.