North Korea’s Foreign Minister told the United Nations last Friday that “going nuclear” is his country’s only way to defend itself, and vowed to further bolster its nuclear military forces, reported Agence France-Presse.
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North Korea vowed on Friday to further strengthen its nuclear weapons capability, in spite of United Nations condemnation and sanctions, and said it would never abandon its deterrence while it was threatened by nuclear-armed states.
Ri said North Korea “will continue with a policy to strengthen our nuclear capabilities in terms of quantity and quality” to counter US -led sanctions and “threats” against the country.
The U.S. flyover was the second in as many weeks and came two weeks after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test.
The Russian foreign minister also touched upon the issue of nuclear disarmament, saying the majority of nuclear-armed countries refrain from joining disarmament agreements, with some of them even torpedoing efforts to start negotiations on creating a world free of weapons of mass destruction. “As long as there exists a nuclear-weapon state in hostile relations with the DPRK, our national security and peace on the Korean peninsula can be defended only with reliable nuclear deterrence”, he said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
Lavrov added that the advancement toward nuclear disarmament must be made with the full consideration of the whole set of factors that affect strategic stability, including the creation of unilateral missile defense systems, placement of strategic non-nuclear strike weapons, threat of placement of weapons in outer space, inability to ensure the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and growing imbalance in conventional arms in Europe.
North Korea has opened an air festival featuring sky diving, demonstrations by its air force and lots of beer to promote a newly renovated and upgraded commercial airport in the coastal city of Wonsan. “It demands a new means of addressing it, altogether different from what we applied until yesterday”.
The United States flew two B1-Bs over South Korea on Wednesday in the second such flight since the September 9 test. U.S. Forces Korea said the flights were a show of force and of the U.S. commitment to preserve the security of the peninsula and the region.
However, such a proposal is likely to be opposed by China, Pyongyang s ally, which has repeatedly called for a de-escalation of tensions. The U.S. flew two B-1 bombers over the peninsula with South Korean fighter jets by its side Wednesday, while the South Korean Department of Defense announced plans to conduct a mock attack on a nuclear facility with the U.S.in Alaska next month.
Yung accused North Korea s government of engaging in a “fanatical and reckless pursuit” of nuclear and missile programs that had reduced the country to a wasteland of poverty and oppression.
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In a defiant speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Ri Yong Ho said the Korean Peninsula “has now been turned into the world’s most risky hot spot which can even ignite the outbreak of a nuclear war”.
