North Korea Refuses To Negotiate, Threatens US With “Severe Nuclear Lesson”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Aug 7, 2017
For all the hope that this weekend’s UN breakthrough, in which the Security Council voted unanimously 15-0 to impose $1 billion in sanctions on North Korea exports, that saw both China and Russia side with the US, would lead to a resolution of the North Korean crisis, it appears that the rogue regime refuses to even contemplate a negotiation or a cooling of tensions and on Monday, North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. if provoked militarily and said it would “under no circumstances” negotiate on its nuclear and missile weapons programs.
In a written statement handed to reporters on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Manila, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said the regime had developed nuclear weapons as a legitimate option for self-defense “in the face of a clear and real nuclear threat posed by the U.S.” He said the U.S. had sought United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang in an effort to disguise a conflict with the regime as an international issue. The world was “becoming gradually aware of the danger” of President Donald Trump’s ”America First” policy of prioritizing U.S. interests in international affairs, Ri added.
This was North Korea’s first official response to the fresh sanctions voted through by the UN security council.
As Reuters elaborates, North Korea is ready to give the United States a “severe lesson” with its strategic nuclear force if it takes military action against it, and will not put its nuclear program or its missiles on the negotiating table, it said in a statement to a regional meeting on Monday.
In a transcript of a statement by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, which was distributed to media in Manila, Pyongyang called new U.N. sanctions “fabricated” and warned there would be “strong follow-up measures” and acts of justice. It said the resolution showed the United Nations had abused its authority.
As quoted by Bloomberg, North Korea asked Asean and participants in regional forum in Manila to “take impartial and practical stand and attitude” on its nuclear weapons, which it says it has no intention of using against any other country except U.S. and those that will join America.
“We take great pride and self-conceit in the fact that we can contribute to decisively reducing the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and in the Asia Pacific by possessing a strong nuclear deterrence,” Yong Ho says in statement at Asean Regional Forum, a copy of which was distributed to reporters in Manila’
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