North Korea says the U.S. strike on Syria validates its nuclear weapons program

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Trump administration's Thursday strike against a Syrian regime air base in response to Tuesday's chemical weapons attack was "an unforgivable act of aggression against a sovereign state," a statement from North Korea said Saturday.

The strike also justifies Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program, the statement added: "The reality of today proves our decision to strengthen our military power to stand against force with force was the right choice a million times over." If North Korea is a nuclear state, the logic goes, it will be protected from similar attacks by the United States because the risk of retaliation becomes too great.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.