DPRK threatens severer countermeasures against UN resolution
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E-mail Xinhua, March 9, 2013
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday it would take severer measures to counter the latest UN resolution on it.
"The world will clearly see what permanent position the DPRK will reinforce as a nuclear weapons state and satellite launcher as a result of the U.S. attitude of prodding the UNSC into cooking up the 'resolution,'" the official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement.
It is the U.S. hostile policy that "compelled the DPRK to conduct an underground nuclear test for self-defense," said the statement, adding that the UN sanctions had "only resulted in the DPRK's bolstering of its nuclear deterrent qualitatively and quantitatively quite contrary to what they expected."
Despite strong and sustained opposition from the international community, the DPRK announced last month that it "successfully" conducted its third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12. Pyongyang conducted similar nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, demanding that the DPRK not proceed with further nuclear tests, give up any nuclear arms program, and return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The resolution also called for peaceful, diplomatic and political settlement of the current situation and a resumption of the six-party talks which began in 2003 but stalled in late 2008.
Two hours after the UN resolution was adopted, the KCNA reported that DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un said the country's military was ready to fight an all-out war.
On Friday, the DPRK accused South Korea and the United States of escalating tensions, saying it would sever the emergency hot line with Seoul and nullify non-aggression agreements between the DPRK and South Korea.
The hot line, installed in a truce village separating the DPRK and South Korea, had been suspended for nearly 10 months from 2008 to 2009.
The two countries are still technically at war since no peace agreement has been signed.
Friday's harsh rhetoric came two days after the DPRK's supreme military command announced that it would scrap the Korean War Armistice Agreement on March 11 when South Korea and the United States start a joint military drill.
The drill, which is dubbed Key Resolve and will involve 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. troops, was denounced by the KCNA as a prelude to an invasion.
The country has also warned that if the United States dares to ignite the fuse of a nuclear war, it will exercise its right to launch a preemptive nuclear attack for self-defense.
In Washington, the U.S. government said Friday that the DPRK's "provocative rhetoric" would increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"This kind of provocative rhetoric, these kinds of actions, are just not going to improve conditions for the North Korean people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a briefing.
"They're not going to end the isolation. They're just going to increase tensions, and it's extremely regrettable," she told reporters.
"We've got to be firm. When we say there are consequences, there have to be consequences," Nuland warned.
White House spokesman Joshua Earnest also called on the DPRK to improve relations with its neighbors.
"North Korea (DPRK)'s threats are not helpful. We have consistently called on North Korea to improve its relations with its neighbors, including South Korea," he said at a briefing. Endi
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