Trump's Nuclear Arms Buildup: Russia's Secret North Korean Nuclear Program Ruled Out, Denuclearization Negotiations
The US, with its nuclear weapons escalation, has added nuclear capabilities to its "China nuclear control" and accused Russia of concealing North Korea's nuclear program as a "non-public matter," effectively ruling out direct denuclearization negotiations.
Thomas G. DiNano, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms and the Trump administration's top weapons diplomat, said in a speech in Geneva on the 6th, "The United States will maintain a strong, credible, and modernized nuclear deterrent to ensure our security, peace and stability, and to enable us to negotiate from a position of strength. By doing so, we will ensure that no one dominates us or our allies, ensuring that all nations recognize that their interests are best served through peace and restraint."
Assistant Secretary of State DiNano stated on the 14th, “While the P5 (the five permanent members of the Security Council) once shared a common stance against North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program in terms of scale and sophistication, Moscow has now allied with Pyongyang and labeled North Korea’s nuclear program a ‘blacklist.’”
He added, “This places a clear obligation on the United States to demand a new architecture that addresses today’s threats, not those of the past. This means considering the full range of Russian nuclear weapons, including both new technologies and existing strategic systems, and addressing the significant growth in China’s nuclear weapons stockpile.”
The North Korean nuclear program, specifically singled out in his speech, was specifically cited as an example of the New START nuclear control failure, and under the new strategic nuclear framework, it is categorized as a ‘nuclear alliance with Russia,’ suggesting that ‘denuclearization negotiations’ with North Korea are excluded under the Trump administration.
The Trump administration's "nuclear arsenal buildup through nuclear testing," which he announced on this day as an attempt at a new system following the termination of the New START (New Strategic Nuclear Reduction Treaty), was based on the decision to "restart nuclear testing" simultaneously with the "construction of nuclear submarines" at the South Korea-U.S. summit in Gyeongju, announced on his plane leaving South Korea, and cited "North Korea's nuclear program as an example of New START's failure," setting the stage for South Korea's nuclear arms buildup.
President Trump stated that President Lee demanded "nuclear submarines to monitor China" during the summit, and used this to criticize "China." They triggered a 'nuclear arms race' in the form of nuclear deterrence, portrayed South Korea as 'the cause of the arms buildup', and applied it to reveal their internal nuclear test strategy.
The New York Times reported, "Just hours after the final arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington expired, the State Department dispatched Thomas G. DiNano, its top weapons diplomat, to Geneva to lay out Washington's vision for the future." "His public address envisioned a future filled with a surge in nuclear weapons and explosive tests.
The Trump administration's views expressed in the speech represent a sharp break from decades of federal policy," describing it as a new system for nuclear arms buildup.
In his speech, he stated, "We will complete the ongoing nuclear modernization program that began when New START took effect." He added, "Under the President's direction, the United States possesses a non-deployed nuclear capability to address the emerging security environment. This includes expanding our current force, diversifying our capabilities, developing and deploying new experimental nuclear forces, and adjusting our extended deterrence posture as needed."
Regarding the "new nuclear tests," he stated, "We now want to address another gap." He added, "Last fall, President Trump directed the Pentagon to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an 'equivalent basis,' specifically citing the Russian and Chinese nuclear tests as violations of their respective moratoriums on nuclear weapons yield testing."
Immediately following his summit with President Lee Jae-myung in Gyeongju, President Trump announced, "South Korea has been approved to build a nuclear submarine at the Philadelphia Shipyard." He then issued a directive to the Pentagon via social media on his plane leaving South Korea, ordering the Pentagon to "begin testing nuclear weapons on an 'equivalent basis.'"
He responded, "Since the President's remarks, we've received numerous questions about what he meant by 'equivalent standards.' The U.S. annual compliance report previously assessed that Russia failed to maintain its moratorium by conducting a supercritical nuclear weapon test. Today, I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China is preparing a nuclear test with a designated yield of hundreds of tons."
He continued, "The People's Liberation Army perceived the test as a violation of its nuclear test ban and attempted to conceal the nuclear explosion. China used decoupling, a method of reducing the effectiveness of seismic observations, to conceal its activities from the world. China conducted a single nuclear test on June 22, 2020."
He suggested applying an 'equivalent standard' to "China's secret nuclear explosion test" and resuming nuclear explosive testing. The New York Times reported on the “new nuclear weapons” mentioned in his speech, saying, “In this year’s federal budget, the Trump administration plans to spend about $90 billion on nuclear weapons, including a fundamental upgrade of the nation’s arsenal and the replacement of aging missiles, bombers, and submarines that can deliver warheads halfway around the world.”
Regarding the “Russian-Chinese nuclear alliance” mentioned in the speech, the Times said, “A major concern for many U.S. policymakers is that Washington will soon face not just a single, equal adversary, as it did during the Cold War, but two superpower rivals: China and Russia.”
The United States last conducted such a test in 1992 and has since adopted a policy of assessing its arsenal using non-explosive means, such as supercomputer simulations. In 1996, the world’s nuclear-armed states signed a global ban on explosives testing, a treaty that several countries, including the United States and China, have not ratified and has not yet formally entered into force.”
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas G. DiNano stated regarding the next round of negotiations following the termination of New START on February 5, 2026, that “this is the end of our unilateral restraint, and we will not need Russia alone at the negotiating table.”
He added that “we are committed to securing a strong outcome, we will not accept anything less than the standards, we will not be silenced by non-compliance, and we will realize the new, improved, and modernized nuclear weapons treaty that President Trump has envisioned.”
The U.S. State Department website lists Thomas G. DiNano’s career as Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security as follows: He led nuclear arms control, strategic stability, missile defense, and space diplomacy policy as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Principal Director of the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (AVC) at the State Department, and led the 2020 New START nuclear arms reduction negotiations with Russia and the U.S. long-term deterrence negotiations with Japan, South Korea, and Australia.
He led the delegation to the 2019 U.S.-China Space Security Dialogue in Beijing, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OEC), and the Conference on Disarmament, and directed the Strategic Command's nuclear deterrence and resilience strategy at the National Strategic Research Institute (NSR) before being nominated as Assistant Secretary in 2025.
See <AP 'Flattery is welcomed', NYT 'Praise for dictator': Lee Jae-myung's military buildup, hardline conservative alliance, August 26, 2025>
<Lee Jae-myung's military buildup, nuclear submarines, U.S. investment in defense spending, arms race, systemic confrontation, October 30, 2025>