N Korea says nuclear test is still an option
29 April 2014, 18:14 -- North Korea said Tuesday it would strengthen its nuclear deterrent following President Barack Obama's 'dangerous' Asian tour, and would not rule out another atomic test, AFP reports.
There are concerns the North is preparing to conduct its fourth atomic detonation, with recent satellite images showing stepped-up activity at its main nuclear test site.
Obama's tour, which ended Tuesday in the Philippines after taking in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, 'was a dangerous one as it was aimed to bring dark clouds of more acute confrontation and nuclear arms race to Asia', a Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement official to state run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Pyongyang would bolster its nuclear deterrent 'now that the US brings the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the DPRK (North Korea)', the spokesman said.
'There is no statute of limitations to the DPRK's declaration that it will not rule out a new form of nuclear test clarified by it in the March 30 statement,' he added.
The 'new form' of nuclear test could perhaps lay the stage for a test based on new uranium-enrichment technology, analysts have said.
Obama's tour 'was designed for undisguised confrontation to retain a tighter grip on allies of the US and encircle and contain its rivals in Eurasia, pursuant to the US Asia-Pacific strategy for domination and scenario for aggression from A to Z,' the spokesman added.
While in Seoul Obama had angered the North by demanding that it abandon its nuclear weapons program, and by threatening tougher sanctions if it went ahead with another test.'
North Korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons is a path that leads only to more isolation,' he told American troops based in Seoul.
The foreign ministry spokesman said the comments showed that US hostility towards the North remains unchanged, and that it is still trying to topple the state by force.
US must not step over 'red line', they carry serious threat of nuclear war - N Korean ambassador to Russia
The US military maneuvers off the coast of Korea carry the threat of nuclear war, said North Korean Ambassador to Russia Kim Yong Jae. 'We demand that the US not hold such exercises near our border, as they carry a serious threat, the threat of nuclear war,' he said.
'We demand that the US not hold such exercises near our border, as they carry a serious threat, the threat of nuclear war. But if they want to, let them hold them near their own coast and let them take their nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula as soon as possible,' the North Korean ambassador told reporters in Novosibirsk on Monday.
He said that large-scale military exercises were held in the south of the Korean peninsula between mid-March and April 19, followed by the largest ever US-South Korean air maneuvers.
During the latest US military exercise an operation to seize Pyongyang was practiced, he added.
'The Americans no longer conceal that all of these drills aim to overthrow our system. We, too, have our own red line. Let them not step over this red line,' he said.
The North Korean ambassador also said that the neighboring countries are urging North Korea to demonstrate self-control, and to remain patient.
'But this demand should be addressed precisely to the Americans, so they will not provoke us,' the North Koran ambassador said.
'A rather tense and serious situation' is taking shape in the Korean peninsula,' he went on to say.
'Significantly, the United States is located several thousand kilometers from our country, across the ocean. They have arrived here, on the Korean peninsula, and they hold military maneuvers at every suitable occasion. But when our army holds regular military exercises, they call them a provocation and a threat to South Korea,' the North Korean diplomat said.
He declined to answer the question, whether the format of international cooperation in the Korean peninsula's denuclearization should be changed in any way, and whether or not North Korea will carry out more nuclear tests.
The most recent satellite-captured images indicate, earlier reports said, that Pyongyang could carry out underground nuclear tests in days.
According to the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (ISIS), the images obtained on April 25 indicate that activities have been intensified at the entrance to a tunnel at the Pungeri nuclear testing ground.
North Korea likely to conduct firing drills near disputed sea border with South Korea
North Korea said it will conduct live fire drills in two areas near a disputed sea border with South Korea, the South Korean ministry of defense said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
North Korea conducted similar drills in late March firing more than 500 rounds of artillery near the so-called Northern Limit Line that has been the de facto sea border since the 1950-53 Korean war.
More than 100 rounds landed south of the border, prompting South Korea to fire hundreds of rounds back into the North's waters.
Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_29/N-Korea-says- nuclear-test-is-still-an-option-4183/
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