North Korea on March 1 issued a Overseas Ministry “spokesperson’s press assertion [taebyonin tamhwa; 대변인 담화]” in response to the February 28 Israeli and US airstrikes on Iran. This preliminary pronouncement was stronger than the Overseas Ministry’s response to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear websites in June 2025. Notably, it mirrored the hardened view of the USA and the worldwide order that was expressed in a abstract report of the just lately concluded Ninth Occasion Congress.
The unfolding state of affairs in Iran and the Center East will nearly actually reinforce North Korea’s distrust of the USA. This, coupled with its rising self-confidence and self-perception as a extra consequential world actor, will solely make restarting any US-North Korea negotiations more difficult going ahead.
Stronger Criticism
North Korea’s preliminary response to Israeli and US airstrikes in Iran was stronger each by way of the assertion’s degree and the language used.
The March 1 Overseas Ministry “spokesperson’s press assertion” was one degree increased authority than the standard automobile North Korea employs to touch upon related worldwide points: the Overseas Ministry “spokesperson’s reply [taebyonin taedap; 대변인 대답]” to Korean Central Information Company (KCNA). For instance, the Overseas Ministry issued spokesperson’s solutions on each the June 2025 US strikes on Iranian nuclear websites and the January 2026 US raid in Venezuela that resulted in President Nicolas Maduro’s seize.
The March 1 assertion used noticeably stronger language on the USA than what was seen within the June 2025 response. It referred to as the strikes “an unlawful act of aggression and essentially the most despicable type of violation of sovereignty of their nature from A to Z” and “a certain logical end result from the U.S. hegemonic and rogue nature,” and went on to state that “the DPRK condemns within the strongest tone the shameless rogue act of the U.S. and Israel.” By comparability, the June 2025 assertion’s strongest critique was that North Korea “strongly denounces the assault on Iran by the U.S., which severely violated the UN Constitution … and violently trampled down the territorial integrity and safety pursuits of a sovereign state.” The March 1 assertion was additionally harsher than North Korea’s response to the US raid in Venezuela—itself already stronger and extra emotional than the June 2025 response to the US bombings in Iran.
The February 28 US and Israeli strikes on Iran have been wider in scope and carried broader regional and worldwide implications than earlier actions, which can have prompted North Korea’s stronger response. Nonetheless, the March 1 assertion additionally mirrored Pyongyang’s hardened view of the USA and the worldwide order. Its references to “the U.S. hegemonic and rogue nature,” Washington’s “damaging function destroying world peace and stability and its grave penalties,” and international locations having to “pay expensive worth” for not resisting “tyranny” with “highly effective counteraction and enough resistance” all align with the language and logic of the Ninth Occasion Congress abstract report. Collectively, these painting the USA as a destabilizing pressure, justifying North Korea’s continued possession of nuclear arms. The abstract report of the Ninth Occasion Congress stated:
Below the signboard of the so-called “America first”, the U.S. is unhesitatingly resorting to aggression and use of pressure in opposition to sovereign states, advocating “strength-based peace” to fulfill its hegemonic ambition solely, whatever the sovereignty, territorial integrity and safety pursuits of different international locations.
The U.S. arbitrary practices that make the world noisy and uneasy aren’t new to us as they’re solely the continuance and extension of the top-class rogue and hegemonic practices we’ve got all the time witnessed.
As a result of U.S. hegemonic coverage, a severe change is happening within the current worldwide order and construction of worldwide relations primarily based on the multilateral system and the usual of justice and the worth of energy are being reevaluated.
…
It’s a actuality and lesson, seen and drawn by the worldwide neighborhood by means of the current merciless geopolitical state of affairs, that if one is powerful, one can survive and develop below any circumstances but when one is weak, one will fall sufferer to sanctions and aggression and, finally, will probably be disadvantaged of sovereignty and territory.
Context
Pyongyang has been carefully monitoring the opportunity of US strikes on Iran since widespread protests erupted throughout Iran in late December 2025 and the USA intensified its navy buildup within the area within the weeks that adopted.
Media protection of the protests was restricted to straight information stories citing the Iranian authorities and officers and averted offering particulars in regards to the state of affairs in Iran, reflecting the problem’s sensitivity, significantly on condition that these stories have been additionally carried for North Korea’s home public. For instance, North Korean media cited Iran’s claims of the skin forces’ try and “destroy social stability,” in addition to US “maneuvers towards home interference” and involvement in “terrorist actions in Iran,” with out additional elaboration on the mass protests that had been ongoing since late December.[1]
Protection of US-Iran tensions within the lead-up to the strikes was extra detailed, with North Korean media reporting on the US deployment of the usAbraham Lincoln and different navy property to the area, in addition to Iran’s responses.[2]
Conclusion
The Ninth Occasion Congress reaffirmed Kim Jong Un’s conditional openness to engagement with the USA, prompting renewed worldwide media hypothesis a few potential summit between President Trump and Kim within the close to future. Nonetheless, Pyongyang’s apparently hardened circumstances for dialogue, rising self-confidence, and its notion of taking part in a larger function on the worldwide stage—exemplified by the Occasion Congress report’s assertion that North Korea stands “proper on the centre” of efforts by “impartial forces” to construct “a good and simply multi-polar world”—all recommend that the prospects for profitable US-North Korea engagement stay dim.
The Occasion Congress report additionally exhibits North Korea’s elementary lack of belief in the USA, each as a dialogue associate and as a world actor. And the continued state of affairs in Iran and the Center East will seemingly solely deepen that mistrust relatively than nudge its coverage towards the USA in a extra constructive course—a disposition encapsulated by this passage from the Occasion Congress report:
It’s the reality proved by the current world and the law-governed precept within the worldwide area dominated by the gangster-like logic of jungle regulation that energy respects energy and to arm oneself with such highly effective pressure as nuclear weapons is the one means able to placing an finish to the imperialist ambition for aggression.
