Seoul: North Korea on Saturday accused the Biden administration of raising military tensions with China through its reckless backing of Taiwan, and said that the growing U.S. military presence in the region constitutes a potential threat to the North. In comments carried by state media, North Korea Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho criticised the United States for sending warships through the Taiwan Strait and providing Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as part of its territory, with upgraded weapons systems and military training.
The United States' indiscreet meddling in issues regarding Taiwan, which the North sees as entirely a Chinese internal affair, threatens to touch off a delicate situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Pak's statement came a day after President Joe Biden told a CNN townhall event that the United States was committed to coming to Taiwan's defence if it comes under attack from China. While that seemed to blur Washington's long-held stance of maintaining strategic ambiguity on whether it would intervene if China were to attack Taiwan, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Biden had no intent to convey a change in policy. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and although it maintains formal diplomatic relations only with Beijing, the U.S. remains committed by law to ensure Taiwan can defend itself from outside threats. North Korea has increasingly criticized the broader U.S. security role in the Indo-Pacific amid an intensifying competition with China, Pyongyang's major ally and economic lifeline. Last month, the North threatened unspecified countermeasures following the Biden administration's decision to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.
It is a well-known fact that the U.S. troops and its military bases in (South Korea) are in use to put pressure on China and that the huge forces of the U.S. and its satellite states, which are being concentrated near Taiwan, can be committed to a military operation targeting the DPRK at any time, Pak said.