N. Korea threatens to take tougher steps if U.S. remains hostile - statement
MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - Pyongyang explains its latest nuclear test by discontent with the U.S. policy and threatens to take even tougher steps if Washington resorts to hostile actions.
"If the U.S. does not fully abandon its hostility and continues to escalate tensions, the DPRK will have to take new and tougher retaliatory measures, which would follow one after another," the North Korean Embassy to Russia said in a statement shared with Interfax on Tuesday.
Attempts to inspect North Korean ships and impose North Korea's sea blockade would be perceived as military actions and will prompt retaliatory strikes, it said.
"The main goal of this nuclear test is to show our army's and people's extreme outrage over the U.S.' thuggish and hostile actions and demonstrate the Songun Korea's will and resources in defending its national sovereignty," it said.
"Our nuclear test is a just self-defense step, which does not go against any international law," it said.
"The U.S. has long been keeping the DPRK on its preemptive nuclear strike target list," the statement says. "Therefore, opposition to the U.S.' growing nuclear threats using deterrence nuclear forces is an absolutely natural self-defense step," it said.
North Korea observed all the necessary procedures in withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in order to protect its national interests, it said.
The North Korean authorities originally did not plan to carry out another nuclear test, as its nuclear deterrence potential had already been sufficient to repel possible aggression, the statement says.
However, the U.S. attempts to infringe upon North Korea's right to conduct space launches seriously violated its sovereignty and marked a hostile act, which Pyongyang could not tolerate, it said.
"Back in April last year, when the U.S., using the UN Security Council, concocted 'the president's statement' condemning our peaceful satellite launch, we displayed maximum patience. However, as the U.S. once again grossly violated our right to conduct space launches and, instead of apologizing for this, started implementing the 'sanctions resolution' ahead of anyone else, so increasing the level of hostility, our patience also reached its limit," the statement says.
Over the UN's over 60-year history, over 2,000 nuclear tests and 9,000 satellite launches have been conducted, but the UN Security Council never passed resolutions banning such actions, the statement says.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday that North Korea successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.
The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the test at an emergency session on Tuesday as a grave violation of a number of Security Council resolutions and threatening peace and security in the world and in the Asian region, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said following the session.
The DPRK will be responsible for any consequences of these actions, Kim said in reading out the statement, adding that the Security Council will issue a new resolution in relation to the DPRK in the near future.
