The North Korean Foreign Minister stated on the 29th that the North would carry out another nuclear experiment and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test if the U.N. Security Council did not apologize for the President’s Statement and the follow-up measures: sanctions on three North Korean companies.
The Foreign Minister claimed in a statement, “The Republic (North Korea) cannot but take inevitable additional defensive measures in order to protect its national interests if the UNSC does not apologize. This includes nuclear tests and ICBM test launches.”
It added that the North would also “decide to construct the light-water reactor and to start developing the technology to guarantee us the ability to generate nuclear fuel by ourselves without delay.” That is, North Korea intimated that it would start developing uranium enrichment technology on which the light-water reactors depend.
Regarding UN sanctions placed on the three North Korean companies after the UNSC President’s Statement, the North’s statement issued the stern criticism that the U.N. Security Council has “committed an illegal provocative act in carrying out sanctions against the Republic (North Korea).” It further set forth its own logic, that its nuclear experiment was a self-preservation measure against the “U.N.’s declaration of war,” saying that, “We already declared in the 1990s that if the U.N., one of the signatory powers to the Korean War Armistice Agreement, applied sanctions against us, we would consider it a declaration of war.”
It continued, “Hostile countries try to physically suffocate our national defense industry as they were not able to dismantle our armaments through the Six Party Talks. Thereupon the desire for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula has faded away along with the Six Party Talks and the situation rushes on to the brink of war.” North Korea means that responsibility for the crippled operation of the Six Party Talks and denuclearization process are laid at the door of the U.S., primary among “hostile countries.”
Therefore, North Korea demanded, “The U.N. Security Council has to apologize for invading our autonomy and withdraw the anti-North Korean statement which was unfairly adopted. This is the only way to get trust back again from its member countries and safely maintain world peace.”
Vice Director of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses Kim Tae Woo evaluated the North’s move in a telephone interview with Daily NK on Wednesday, “I don’t think it is a sheer bluff because North Korea has long wanted to raise wholeheartedly its prestige as a nuclear state.”
Kim claimed, “North Korea may have assessed the nuclear test in 2006 and this rocket launch as not so powerful that the U.S. could have been fearful of them. Therefore, in order for a definite strategy towards the U.S., North Korea may feel the need to put on a successful ICBM and nuclear test.”
In his analysis, “It was only to provide a justification for nuclear weapons and ICBM tests, because it is obvious that the UNSC will not apologize,” and, “From the aspect of technology, it is not pertinent that some say North Korea does not maintain a missile and nuclear weapons capacity,” he pointed out.
He foresaw, regarding the mention of light water reactor development, “North Korea has sincerely wanted the uranium enrichment technology for a long time, so it is trying to develop the technology based on the justification of operating a light water reactor.”
He added, “However, North Korea has not had any experience of developing it by itself and has not operated it, so it cannot be easy.”
