SEOUL: N. Korea swiftly lashed out against the UN Security Council's condemnation of its December launch of a long-range rocket, saying yesterday that it will strengthen its military defenses — including its nuclear weaponry — in response.
The defiant statement from N. Korea's Foreign Ministry was issued hours after the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Pyongyang's Dec. 12 rocket launch as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The resolution, which won approval from Pyongyang's ally and protector China after drawn-out discussions, also expanded sanctions against the North.
In Pyongyang, the Foreign Ministry maintained that the launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, not a test of long-range missile technology. But now, N. Korea will "counter the US hostile policy with strength, not with words," the ministry said, ominously warning that Pyongyang will "bolster the military capabilities for self-defense including the nuclear deterrence."
The wording "considerably and strongly hints at the possibility of a nuclear test," analyst Hong Hyun-ik at the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul said yesterday.
A nuclear test would fit into a familiar pattern of defiance in Pyongyang. In 2006 and 2009, N. Korea followed up rocket launches just weeks later by testing atomic devices, which experts say is necessary for development of nuclear warheads.
However, Pyongyang has a new leader, Kim Jong Un, who took over in December 2011 following the death of father Kim Jong Il. How he will handle the standoff with the international community remains unclear.
There was no indication yesterday of an imminent nuclear test. However, satellite photos taken last month at N. Korea's underground nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in the far northeast showed continued activity that suggested a state of readiness even in winter, according to analysis by 38 North, a N. Korea website affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.
Last month's rocket launch has been celebrated as a success in Pyongyang, and the scientists involved treated like heroes. Kim Jong Un cited the launch in his New Year's Day speech laying out country’s main policies and goals for the upcoming year, and banners hailing the launch are posted on buildings across the capital.
Washington and its allies consider the long-range rocket launch a covert test of ballistic missile technology, and suspect Pyongyang is working toward mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of striking the US
N. Korea claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea. The foes fought in the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953 and left the Korean Peninsula divided at the 38th parallel.
Six-nation disarmament negotiations, hosted by China and aimed at offering N. Korea much-needed food and fuel in return for dismantling its nuclear program, have been stalled since Pyongyang walked away from the talks following UN punishment for its 2009 rocket launch.
Since then, Pyongyang had indicated its readiness to resume discussing disarmament, and in February 2012 negotiated a deal with Washington to place a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests in exchange for food aid.
That deal fell apart when Pyongyang unsuccessfully launched a long-range rocket in April. In July, N. Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a memorandum declaring that it felt forced to "completely re-examine the nuclear issue due to the continued US hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.
N. Korea vows ‘nuclear deterrence’
