North Korea's No. 2 leader said Wednesday that his country may carry out additional nuclear tests but it depends on the U.S. policy toward the communist state, Japan's Kyodo News reported.
The remarks by Kim Yong-nam, head of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, were the first publicized official statements from North Korea, since the country caused a global uproar by announcing it conducted its first-ever nuclear tests on Monday.
"The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy toward our country," Kim said in a meeting with a Kyodo News delegation at Pyongyang's Mansudae Assembly Hall, the Japanese news agency reported in a Pyongyang-dispatched story.
"If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that."
Top executives of Kyodo News, including its president Satoshi Ishikawa, have been on a visit to the reclusive North, since Saturday.
Kim, who is second in line to reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, also said North Korea is considering the U.S. policy toward the country the main factor for determining whether to return to the stalled six-party nuclear talks.
"That also depends on the attitude of the United States," Kim said. "We cannot attend the six-party talks while various sanctions, including financial sanctions, are imposed on us," he said.
In addition, the official stressed that North Korea had no choice but to develop its own deterrence to prevent conflict, and claimed the test is aimed at preventing a nuclear war from breaking out.
"The possession of nuclear weapons by North Korea has contributed to stability in Northeast Asia," he said.
The North pulled out of the disarmament talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan late last year in protest of U.S.-imposed sanctions for its alleged counterfeiting and other financial crimes.
The North's nuclear test prompted the U.N. Security Council to discuss harsher, coordinated sanctions on the North, as the alleged test took place only two days after the council adopted a statement urging the North to scrap the test plan. Diplomatic sources said the U.N. council is expected to pass a resolution on North Korea within this week.
Kim expressed confidence the North can survive additional sanctions.
"Even as economic sanctions increase by day, our economy in general has entered a rising trend," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, a North Korean official in Beijing said the North would consider any "full-scale sanctions" as a declaration of war.
"We implemented the nuclear test under international law.
Sanctions don't make sense. If full-scale sanctions are launched on us, we will regard them as a declaration of war," the official told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity.
He said a naval blockade would be considered as part of full-scale sanctions. "As we are put under more pressure, the level of our response will be raised accordingly."
In Pyongyang, Kim also said his country still supports a 2002 declaration between its leader Kim Jong-il and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, under which the two countries agreed to resolve outstanding issues and normalize diplomatic ties.
The accord was forged as Koizumi made a historic trip to Pyongyang.
"If the two countries can implement the declaration, there is no bilateral problem that cannot be solved." Kim said, adding that this stance remains valid even after Shinzo Abe succeeded Koizumi as Japan's prime minister.
Seoul, Oct. 11 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea's No. 2 leader says additional nuclear tests hinge on U.S. |
