North Korea says Washington has left Pyongyang with no choice but to “counter nuclear with nuclear” in a bid to confront the US hostile policies against the Asian country, amid simmering tensions between the two sides over a protracted stalemate in the resumption of bilateral talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Citing a report by North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute for Disarmament and Peace, NK News, a US website based in South Korea, said Friday that Pyongyang would employ nuclear weapons against the United States since it was the only remaining way to counter the threat it perceives from Washington.
“In order to eliminate the nuclear threats from the US, the DPRK government made all possible efforts either through dialogue or in resort to the international law, but all ended in vain,” NK News said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The option left was only one, and that was to counter nuclear with nuclear,” it added.
NK News also said that Pyongyang had announced plans to build up its weapons arsenal “to contain the persistent nuclear threats from the US.”
The announcement comes just days after the North said it was suspending “military action plans” against the South after it had blown up a liaison office used for talks between the two countries in a North Korean border city and, in response, South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said it would keep “resolute military posture.”
The two Koreas were on a path of rapprochement beginning in January 2018 before US intransigence to relieve any of the sanctions on the North effectively killed diplomacy.
North Korea has been under harsh US sanctions for years over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
US President Donald Trump has attempted to court Pyongyang, and although he has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un three times, he has refused to relieve any of the sanctions on the North over its military programs. That has in turn hampered efforts to demilitarize the Korean Peninsula.
Kim outlined last month a plan to further boost his country’s nuclear deterrence capabilities.
The Washington-Pyongyang nuclear talks have made little progress since late last year, particularly after the global fight to curb the pandemic, which has so far infected nearly 10 million people and killed over 496,000 others around the world.
Kim’s pledge to boost its nuclear capabilities comes at a time when Washington, according to some news reports, might conduct its first full-fledged nuclear test since 1992.
Last December, Kim ended a moratorium on the country’s missile tests and said North Korea would soon develop a “new strategic weapon.”
Source: Agencies
