North Korea is ready to halt its nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea, the North Korean foreign minister has said as he warned that his country wo
North Korea is ready to halt its nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea, the North Korean foreign minister has said as he warned that his country won’t be cowed by international sanctions.
Foreign minister Ri Su Yong in an interview with the Associated Press defended the country’s right to maintain a nuclear deterrent, and for those waiting for the North’s regime to collapse, he had this to say: Don’t hold your breath.
“Stop the nuclear war exercises in the Korean Peninsula, then we should also cease our nuclear tests,” he said in his first interview on Saturday with a Western news organisation.
Nr Ri held firm to Pyongyang’s longstanding position that the US drove his country to develop nuclear weapons as an act of self-defence.
At the same time, he suggested that suspending the military exercises with Seoul could open the door to talks and reduced tensions.
“If we continue on this path of confrontation, this will lead to very catastrophic results, not only for the two countries, but for the whole entire world as well,” he said, speaking in Korean through an interpreter.
“It is really crucial for the United States government to withdraw its hostile policy against the DPRK and as an expression of this stop the military exercises, war exercises, in the Korean Peninsula. Then we will respond likewise.”
DPRK is an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed a submarine-launched ballistic missile test as an “eye-opening success”, state media said today, declaring Pyongyang has the ability to strike Seoul and the US whenever it pleases.
The US, joined by Brit-ain, said Saturday’s apparent test was a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and called on the North to refrain from further moves that could destabilise the region. South Korea’s defence ministry said the launch appeared to have failed as the missile, fired from a submarine in the Sea of Japan, flew just 30 kilometres.
However, the North’s state-run KCNA news agency insisted that the test, which it said was personally monitored by Kim, confirmed “the reliability of the Korean-style underwater launching system”.
It cited the young leader as saying that Pyongyang “is now capable of hitting the heads of the South Korean puppet forces and the US imperialists anytime as it pleases.”
