North Korea on Thursday hinted that it could resume its nuclear and long-range weapons tests, following its recent altercation with the United States (US).
In a report by the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, a Politburo meeting “heard a report analysing the current situation around the Korean peninsula and [...] countermeasures against the US for the future.”
Participants of the meeting, which included Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, were briefed about the US’ “recent moves of recklessly faulting” Pyongyang “for no reason” and for simply “exercising its sovereignty.”
“The US viciously slurred our state and committed the foolish act of taking over 20 independent sanctions measures. Especially the present US administration persists in manoeuvres to deprive the DPRK of its right to self-defence,” the report said, referring to the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea hints it may resume testing nuclear and long-range missiles to bolster its defenses against the United States https://t.co/Cn6Fc2baD1 pic.twitter.com/0y2rwpRiG9
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 20, 2022
The statement was a reference to the Biden administration’s decision to issue multiple sanctions on Pyongyang over its series of missile tests earlier this month. On January 12, the Treasury Department announced that it was imposing penalties on the five North Korean officials over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the country’s missile programs and for their broader support of North Korea’s mass destruction activities.
The move angered Pyongyang, which retaliated by carrying out its fourth weapons test in a month, earlier this week. The test included the firing of two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. Just days prior to that, the country had fired at least two ballistic missiles from a train.
With regards to these developments, the KCNA report said: “Assessing that the hostile policy and military threat by the US has reached a dangerous line that can not be overlooked anymore, [the meeting] concluded to take a practical action to more reliably and effectively increase our physical strength for defending dignity, sovereign rights and interests of our state.” The meeting members also decided to “immediately bolster more powerful physical means which can efficiently control the hostile moves of the US.”
North Korea has frequently criticised the US’ “hostile” foreign policy, including joint military exercises with South Korea, American troops on the Korean peninsula, and the United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.
In parallel news, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had no plans to discuss a draft resolution on sanctions against North Korea.
Instead, Zhao called on the members of the UNSC “to focus on advancing the political settlement process of the Peninsula issue [...] and make a positive effort to stabilise the situation, accumulate mutual trust, and resume dialogue.” In the past, Beijing has usually refrained from publicly making moves against North Korea in international fora.