In a challenge to the global order, North Korea has issued a threat that it will become \u201cworld\u2019s most powerful nuclear and military state\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang\u2019s assertion of ambitions to global supremacy came on Friday after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council, \u201cThe situation on the Korean Peninsula is the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pyongyang \u201cwill march forward and make great advancement victoriously as world\u2019s most powerful nuclear and military state upholding the line on simultaneous development of the Two Fronts,\u201d North Korea\u2019s Permanent Representative Ja Song-nam told the Security Council during a session on the threat from his country\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes.<\/p>\n
The mention of \u201cTwo Fronts\u201d is a reference to North Korea\u2019s theory of simultaneously developing its military capabilities, as well as its economy, which are both vulnerable to international sanctions.<\/p>\n
With the characteristic bombast of his country\u2019s rhetoric, Ja dismissed the Council as \u201ctool\u201d of the US, which he said is \u201cterrified by the incredible might of our republic\u201d.<\/p>\n
He described the latest North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test on November 29 as the \u201cGreat November Event\u201d leading to \u201ccompleting the state nuclear force\u201d and \u201cbuilding a rocket power\u201d.<\/p>\n
That missile, said to be capable of hitting targets anywhere in the US, landed off Japan\u2019s coast within its economic exclusive zone in its test flight.<\/p>\n
While claiming to be marching towards becoming the world\u2019s most powerful military and nuclear state, Ja also asserted that Pyongyang \u201cwould not pose any threat to any country and region\u201d as long as its interests were not threatened.<\/p>\n
He asserted that his country could \u201cfully guarantee\u201d that there had been no \u201cillegal transfer of nuclear weapons, its technology and weapon-grade nuclear materials\u201d.<\/p>\n
He was, however, significantly silent about missile technology proliferation.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has received missile technology from North Korea in exchange for nuclear technology in deals going back to the 1990s, which have been confirmed by US officials and documented by the US and international media.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who spoke before Ja reiterated Washington\u2019s warning that \u201call options are on the table\u201d to contain North Korea\u2019s nuclear threat while offering to keep the lines of communication with Pyongyang open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US will use all measures necessary to defend itself,\u201d Tillerson said. But he added, \u201cWe will meanwhile keep our channels of communication open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later speaking to reporters, Tillerson said that Washington would not accept any preconditions for talks with Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
Referring to proposals by China and Russia for the US and South Korea to stop joint military activities in return for North Korea ceasing nuclear and missile activities, he said: \u201cWe do not accept a \u2018freeze-for-freeze\u2019 as a precondition to talks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a challenge to the global order, North Korea has issued a threat that it will become \u201cworld\u2019s most powerful nuclear and military state\u201d. Pyongyang\u2019s assertion of ambitions to global supremacy came on Friday after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council, \u201cThe situation on the Korean Peninsula is the most tense and dangerous peace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13987,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985\/revisions\/13987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}