North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho talks to reporters during the 23rd ASEAN regional meeting in Vientiane, Laos, Tuesday, July 26, 2016.
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The minister, Ri Yong Ho, said North Korea was a responsible nuclear state and would not use its atomic arms unless threatened, repeating its stated position.
Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development “is a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and the world”, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told counterparts from China, South Korea, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“Whether we conduct additional nuclear tests is entirely up to the United States”, Ri told reporters late Tuesday on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Laos which both he and Kerry attended.
He criticized North Korea as “the only country in the world defying the worldwide movement towards responsibility” by continuing to develop its missile program.
Soldiers are complaining about the assignment, suggesting “not even a 3-year-old would believe the South would attack us with snakes”, the source said.
Upon arrival in Washington, Cho also said that this week’s talks are part of ongoing efforts by Seoul and Washington to keep increasing pressure on North Korea to force a change in Pyongyang’s strategic calculus over its nuclear and missile programs.
This was Ri’s first worldwide meeting since he became foreign minister in May.
Separately, the US has imposed bilateral sanctions that seek to block North Korea’s access to the worldwide financial system.
News of the defections came during a period of tension on the Korean peninsula following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month.
“Iran, a powerful and well developed country with a long history of thousands of years”, has decided it would not pursue nuclear weapons in order to have economic sanctions lifted, Kerry said.
The issue has dominated this week’s talks in Vientiane, a rare opportunity for the six parties involved in stalled talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear programme to be in the same room. Had there been such an article, the Security Council should have taken action for every nuclear and ballistic missile test conducted by other countries, he said.
North Korea’s Ri met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday but few details have been released.
South Korea also closed the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex, which employed over 54,000 North Koreans.
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“Recently they committed the most grave hostility by insulting our Dear Leader”, he said.
