NKorea to boost nuclear force ‘to the maximum’
Print Edition
NORTH Korea suggested yesterday it will continue its nuclear weapons tests, saying it will bolster its nuclear force “to the maximum” in a “consecutive and successive way at any moment” in the face of what it calls United States aggression and hysteria.
American President Donald Trump has said a “major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.
In a show of force, the US has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula to join drills with South Korea to counter a series of threats of destruction from North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Now that the US is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called ‘maximum pressure and engagement,’ the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence,” a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry said.
North Korea’s “measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” he added.
The country has carried out five nuclear tests and a series of missile tests in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions. North Korea has been conducting such tests at an unprecedented rate and is believed to have made progress in developing intermediate-range and submarine-launched missiles.
It test-launched a missile on Saturday which Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful, but which nevertheless drew widespread condemnation.
Meanwhile, South Korea said the US had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system to counter the North Korean threat, days after Trump said Seoul should pay for its installment.
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