North Korea will “build up its nuclear deterrent potential in response to hostile steps of the United States,” an official of the republic’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Thursday.
The diplomat rejected a possibility of talks with Washington that “stubbornly expands an international campaign with the aim to isolate and suffocate the DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).” Besides, he kept up a barrage of criticism against “the emasculated states that participate in this campaign, targeting Pyongyang.”
According to the statement, North Korea was outraged by the visit of the nuclear-powered USS Mississippi submarine to the South Korean port of Busan. The U.S. and South Korea conducted joint military drills that also involved B-52 strategic bombers, plotting schemes of “the Pyongyang occupation.” In the wake of these developments, the North Korean Foreign Ministry “views as fully justified the measures aimed at building up the national nuclear deterrent potential needed to counteract the threat coming from the U.S.”
The diplomat warned that the U.S. steps could lead to “catastrophic consequences.”
Earlier, North Korea had rejected the statement condemning its ballistic missile launches adopted by the UN Security Council. The foreign ministry said that the launch of a surface-to-surface medium-and long-range strategic ballistic Hwasong-10 missile was conducted on June 23 in full compliance with the policies of North Korea’s Labor Party in order “to boost a collateral growth of the economy and to strengthen the nuclear forces with the aim of ensuring the country’s security against the background of threats coming from the U.S. and other hostile forces.” Pyongyang dubbed the UN Security Council’s statement as “a product of double standards policy lacking unbiasedness” and shifted responsibility for spiraling tensions in the Korean Peninsula to Washington.
