North Korea reiterated its nuclear ambition Saturday, saying it will never give up its nuclear arsenal unless the United States first ends its hostility toward the communist country.
The North's acerbic rhetoric, which is not new, comes as the United States is set to launch joint naval exercises with South Korea and Japan off the Korean Peninsula's east coast next week. The U.S. naval fleet taking part in the routine drills includes nuclear-powered supercarrier USS George Washington.
"Under the condition where the United States' nuclear threat (against the North) continues, it is so reasonable for us to possess and further develop nuclear capabilities to defend its dignity and the safety of the nation," North Korea said in a statement issued through its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a party organization handling inter-Korean affairs.
"To fairly resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the United States' nuclear threat, which is the very source of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in the first place, must be removed, along with the United States' hostile policy toward the DPRK, and the U.S. forces in South Korea must withdraw with its nuclear weapons," it added, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The statement, carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency, came one day after the country's top military organization, the National Defense Commission, vehemently criticized South Korean President Park Geun-hye for urging the North to give up its nuclear ambition.
In its Saturday statement, North Korea again blasted the South Korean president, saying that Park "should keep silent if she has nothing right to say."
"For the rogues, who do not even have the basic knowledge about North-South relations and know nothing about manners or morality, to speak of manners and to call (North Korea) unreasonable are, in fact, an intolerable provocation and ridicule toward us," the statement said.
"The Park Geun-hye group must listen carefully to our rightful criticism and just warnings and stop making useless remarks, and behave itself in order to avoid a miserable fate," it added. (Yonhap news)
