N. Korea blasts US Golden Dome missile defense plan as 'space nuclear war scenario'

U.S. President Donald Trump announces he has selected the path forward for his ambitious Golden Dome missile defense shield, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 20. UPI-Yonhap

North Korea on Tuesday denounced the Donald Trump administration's plan to establish a Golden Dome missile defense system involving space-based interceptors as an attempt to pursue an outer space nuclear war scenario.

The North Korean foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies issued the criticism in a memorandum dated Monday and carried by the Korean Central News Agency, a week after President Trump announced a $175 billion plan to construct the Golden Dome missile defense system before the end of his term.

The plan comes as Washington seeks to counter evolving threats from North Korea, China and Russia, following Trump's January executive order to build an "Iron Dome for America" to address threats posed by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks.

North Korea described the U.S. missile defense system plan as "a very dangerous threatening initiative" aimed at facilitating the use of the offensive military muscle of the U.S. forces.

The institute accused the United States of attempting the military subjugation of its "satellite countries" through the establishment of an integrated missile defense system and the mobilization of their forces for U.S. military operations in the event of offensive actions.

It denounced the plan as "a typical product of 'America first,' the height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice," claiming it represents "an outer space nuclear war scenario supporting the U.S. strategy for uni-polar domination with the preemptive establishment of the outer space-based military substructure."

North Korea claimed that the global security environment is becoming uncertain due to "the U.S. undisguised moves for space militarization," saying that national and regional security can only be reliably guaranteed through "the symmetry of the matchless power."