(ATTN: ADDS photo, foreign ministry's response in last 4 paras; RECASTS lead)

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's criticism this week of Seoul's push to build nuclear-powered submarines marked Pyongyang's first official response to the matter, a South Korean unification ministry official said Thursday.

In a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the previous day, Jang Kum-chol, first vice minister of North Korea's foreign ministry, argued Seoul's effort to build nuclear submarines marked a step toward nuclear armament.

Jang warned that nuclear cooperation between Seoul and Washington on submarine development will further destabilize the Korean Peninsula and called on his country to secure "unparalleled power capable of neutralizing all sorts of existing or newly-emerging potential threats."

"It marks the first official statement to lay out North Korea's basic position" on the matter, the unification ministry official said.

The timing was especially notable, he said, coming amid Pyongyang's escalating propaganda campaign against Japan's nuclear policy, as well as trilateral security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

North Korea appears to view these developments as security threats it must guard against, a source said, adding the commentary reflects a recent trend of North Korea increasingly aligning itself with the security positions of Russia and China.

Seoul's foreign ministry pushed back on Pyongyang's claim that South Korea is moving toward "nuclear armament" that poses a "grave challenge" to its security and maritime sovereignty.

"The development of nuclear-powered submarines is part of the government's effort to respond to a dramatically changing security environment on the Korean Peninsula, and is therefore a just and defensive measure," ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon said at a regular briefing later in the day.

"In addition, the conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines the government is seeking to build are entirely consistent with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," he added.

"As a nation that has faithfully implemented the obligations under the NPT, we will continue close and transparent consultations with the IAEA," he said.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr

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