North Korea has sharply criticized the United States’ newly announced “Golden Dome” missile defense system, warning that it could ignite a nuclear arms race and undermine global security. The system, unveiled by former President Donald Trump on May 20, 2025, is a $175 billion initiative aimed at deploying hundreds of satellites equipped with advanced sensors and interceptors to detect and neutralize missiles launched from adversarial nations such as China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
The Golden Dome announced by the US will be a missile defence system that will be based on both on the ground and in space. It will be designed to detect, track and taken down missiles at different stages of their flight, which also includes destroying them before they launch or while they are still in the air.
North Korea has been incensed by what it sees as a clear provocation reiterating its objections in a memorandum released by the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for American Studies, describing the Golden Dome as an inherently offensive system and a “malignant factor” fueling a global strategic arms race. The findings were reported by state media on Tuesday.
The memorandum accuses Washington of attempting to militarize space, meaning nations not aligned with the US would be forced to pursue symmetrical nuclear capabilities as their only means of self-defense. It also warned that US “satellite states,” including South Korea and Japan, could be drawn into American military strategy and serve as “cannon fodder” in future conflicts.
The project is “a typical product of ‘America first’, the height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice, and is an outer space nuclear war scenario supporting the US strategy for unipolar domination,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
Meanwhile, China has also expressed strong concerns about Washington’s Golden Dome plan, accusing the United States of undermining global stability. China is catching up to the US in ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, according to the Pentagon.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also had a few words on the subject, Peskov said all nations have the sovereign right to develop means of countering perceived threats, when asked specifically about the Golden Dome. However, Moscow has consistently opposed the militarization of space and actions it views as destabilizing to the global strategic balance.
President Vladimir Putin, speaking at his annual press conference last December, underscored Russia’s efforts to ensure that its nuclear-capable weapons could defeat all possible countermeasures. He argued that decades of American investment in anti-ballistic missile infrastructure “cost a lot to taxpayers and contribute little to the security of their country.”
