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N. Korea
Vows to Stop Nuke Tests if US Ends Military Drills
With Seoul
By RT
April 24, 2016
"Information
Clearing House"
- "RT"-
Pyongyang said it will stop conducting nuclear tests
if the US puts an end to its annual military drills
in the South, North Korea’s foreign minister told AP
on Saturday.
“Stop the nuclear war exercises in the Korean
Peninsula, then we should also cease our nuclear
tests,” Foreign
Minister Ri Su Yong said in his first-ever interview
with Western media.
“If we continue on this path of confrontation,
this will lead to very catastrophic results, not
only for the two countries but for the whole
entire world as well.”
At the
same time, Ri stressed that his country has the
right to maintain a nuclear deterrent and will
not be bullied by international sanctions.
Korea’s
foreign minister asserted that it was the US that
had pushed the North to develop nuclear weapons as a
self-defense strategy, adding that the only thing
that could dissuade the country from carrying out
its tests, would be for the US to halt its military
exercises with Seoul.
“It is really crucial for the United States
government to withdraw its hostile policy against
the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and
as an expression of this stop the military
exercises, war exercises, in the Korean Peninsula.
Then we will respond likewise,”
he said in Korean.
If the
drills were to be stopped “for some period, for
some years, new opportunities may arise for the two
countries and for the whole entire world as well,”
he observed.
Ri
arrived in New York on Friday for an official UN
ceremony, where over 160 countries signed on to a
climate change deal reached last year.
In response
to Ri’s comments, a US official told AP that
participating in military exercises in South Korea
demonstrates the US’ commitment to the region and
provides an opportunity to update existing military
techniques.
“We call again on North Korea to refrain from
actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in
the region and focus instead on taking concrete
steps toward fulfilling its international
commitments and obligations,”
said the official on condition of anonymity.
Pyongyang
views American exercises in the South as a rehearsal
for an actual invasion of the North. This is not the
first time such a proposal has been made, but the US
continues to insist that North Korea must make the
first move by giving up its nuclear ambitions.
Tensions
between Pyongyang and Seoul recently escalated after
the North conducted a hydrogen bomb test in early
January and successful put a satellite into orbit a
month later, going against several UN Security
Council resolutions.
North Korea
stated on Sunday that its most recent
submarine-launched ballistic missile test, which was
overseen by the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, had
been a “great success,” providing “one
more means for powerful nuclear attack,” the
North Korean news agency, KCNA, reported.
“It fully confirmed and reinforced the reliability
of the Korean-style underwater launching system and
perfectly met all technical requirements for
carrying out... underwater attack operation,”
the news agency said.
A
submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was
fired on Saturday from the Sea of Japan (also known
as the East Sea) in open waters at about 6:30 pm
local time (0930 GMT), Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
(JCS) said.
The missile
flew “for a few minutes,” Yonhap agency
reported, citing a military source.
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