North Korea to further strengthen its nuclear forces - DPRK Foreign Ministry
MOSCOW. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The U.S. policy towards North Korea has prompted Pyongyang to conduct a nuclear test, and the country will continue to strengthen its nuclear potential, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said.
"It was the United States that prompted us to design the nuclear explosive. The nuclear threat and U.S. blackmail, which have been daily manifested for decades, drove us towards this goal," a representative of the DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement seen by Interfax.
"As we have said before, the DPRK will further strengthen the national nuclear forces in terms of quality and quantity in order to protect its dignity and the right to life against the increasing nuclear war threat coming from the United States," the statement said.
"The test of nuclear explosive demonstrates our unbending will for constant readiness to strike back on the enemies if they stage a provocation; this is part of the practical measures taken for the deterrence of threats and sanctions against the DPRK incited by the U.S.-led hostile forces," the North Korean Foreign Ministry representative said.
"We adhere to the course of parallel development of our nuclear forces and the economy for the purposes of protection of our sovereignty, the right to life and peace against the increasing nuclear threat and U.S. blackmail, and these tests are just one of the processes through which this course is being implemented," he said.
The U.S. presidential administration was caught unaware "by the successful nuclear test by which our scientists and nuclear industry technicians examined the capacity of nuclear explosive; it behaves stupidly by trying to label us as 'the culprit behind the breach of peace', to step up sanctions and pressure, and to conceal the failure of its policy against the DPRK," he said.
"The fact that Obama has been trying to deny in every possible way the strategic status of the DPRK as a full-fledged nuclear weapons state looks like a silly attempt to overshadow the Sun with one's palm," he said.