© Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
The United States should give up “dreams” that North Korea will stop its nuclear weaposn program, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. The ministry also claimed that North Korea is going to establish “the balace of force” with the United States to counter its “nuclear threats.”
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at eradicating the US nuclear threats and establishing the balance of force with it,” the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The ministry emphasized that the country develops nuclear weapons to protect the sovereignty and people’s lives against “the blackmail of American imperialists.”
“The US should not forget that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has rapidly emerged as a strategic state capable of posing a substantial nuclear threat to the US mainland,” the statement reads. “If the US wants to live in safety, it needs to stop its hostile policy against the DPRK [North Korea]. It should also give up dreams that we will abandon our nuclear weapons.“
The ministry added that the latest round of UN sanctions, aimed against its remaining imports and exports, is an “act of war.”
“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the resolution,” the statement reads.
On December 22, the UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea following its ballistic missile test that took place on November 29. The latest round of sannctions further slashed its refined petroleum product imports and banned all remaining major exports. Moreover, the sanctions demand the repatriation of all North Koreans working abroad within 24 months.
