Nuclear program to continue despite China, N. Korea says

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA— In a rare and surprisingly pointed criticism of China, North Korea’s state-run news agency has warned in a commentary that the country would continue its nuclear weapons program even if it risked losing a friendly relationship with its longtime ally, the North’s largest trading partner. The commentary, by a writer named Kim Chol and carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday, came as U.S. President Donald Trump was pressing China to increase the enforcement of sanctions against its neighbour to contain its nuclear and long-range missile programs.

“One must clearly understand that the DPRK’s line of access to nukes for the existence and development of the country can neither be changed nor shaken,” the commentary said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

“And that the DPRK will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear program which is as precious as its own life, no matter how valuable the friendship is.”

It is unusual for the state news media of North Korea to issue such a direct criticism of China, which accounts for 90 per cent of its external trade and provides almost all of the country’s oil.

In February, KCNA carried another commentary bitterly critical of China after Beijing announced that it was suspending coal imports from North Korea for the rest of the year. But at the time, it did not mention China by name.

Last month, another KCNA commentary, again without mentioning China by name, attacked it for “dancing to the tune of the U.S.”