North Korea says US 'Golden Dome' missile defence system risks nuclear war in space

Published on 27/05/2025 - 14:06 GMT+2

North Korea has deed retired astatine US President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” rocket defence programme, calling it a “very dangerous” inaugural that could frighten warfare successful space.

Since returning to nan White House successful January, Trump has prioritised nan scheme, which intends to take sides nan US against aerial threats for illustration ballistic and cruise missiles. If it goes ahead, it is apt to see sensors and interceptors successful space.

“Once afloat constructed, nan Golden Dome will beryllium tin of intercepting missiles moreover if they are launched from different sides of nan world and moreover if they are launched from space, and we will person nan champion strategy ever built,” Trump said past week.

In response, nan North Korean Foreign Ministry released a memorandum accusing nan US of being “hell-bent” connected militarising space.

It warned that Trump’s scheme risked “turning outer abstraction into a imaginable atomic warfare field”, according to nan state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The disapproval echoed nan connection utilized by China connected Wednesday, erstwhile a Chinese overseas ministry spokesperson said nan US programme “heightens nan consequence of abstraction becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms title and undermines world security”.

“We impulse nan United States to wantonness nan improvement and deployment of a world rocket defence strategy arsenic soon arsenic possible,” nan spokesperson added.

Trump has stressed nan request for nan US to summation its protect capabilities successful ray of threats from its adversaries.

The US president has suggested that nan Golden Dome programme could beryllium operational by nan extremity of his word successful 2029.

However, experts person said nan inaugural could return years to complete. There are besides concerns astir nan costs of specified a venture.

While Trump claimed nan full task would costs $175 cardinal (€154bn), nan Congressional Budget Office said this period that conscionable nan space-based components of nan Golden Dome could group nan state backmost $542bn (€478bn) complete nan adjacent 2 decades.