North Korea unmoved as world unites against its nuke ambitions
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea’s friends and enemies joined forces Friday in opposing its determination to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state and calling on leader Kim Jong Un to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula — but the North gave no sign of budging on its nuclear ambitions.
In a very rare appearance by a North Korean at the UN Security Council, Ambassador Ja Song Nam told a ministerial meeting that the country’s possession of nuclear weapons was “an inevitable self-defensive measure” to defend the country against “the US nuclear threat and blackmail.”
Ja never mentioned the possibility of talks. Instead, he called the council meeting “a desperate measure plotted by the U.S. being terrified by the incredible might of our republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”
He pointed to the Nov. 29 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts say could reach the US mainland.
South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told the council that North Korea is “in the final stages of nuclear weaponization” and warned that if it can put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile “it will fundamentally alter the security landscape in the region and beyond.”
He urged the international community to grasp the urgency of the threat this poses and find ways to halt the North’s nuclear program — including by maximizing pressure and uniting in answering “absolutely no” to North Korean attempts to be recognized as a nuclear-weapons state.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared: “We will never accept a nuclear North Korea.”