Pyongyang - Saba:
Pyongyang says the United States should abandon its military threats if it has concerns about the safety of its territory, an official at the North Korean Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted the commander of the US Northern Command as recently commenting on the ability of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles to reach the US mainland.
The agency stated that the United States is the one that has engaged in confrontational behaviors such as planning war drills with South Korea and sending a nuclear submarine to the Korean Peninsula.
The agency added that the DPRK has the sovereign right to improve its self-defense power.
Earlier this month, the DPRK Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un inspected a nuclear materials production base and a nuclear weapons institute, in the second such disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility after the first disclosure in September last year.
During his inspection of the facility, Kim Jong Un stressed that "strengthening the nuclear deterrence is indispensable in the face of the long-term confrontation with the most ferocious hostile states, as the long-term confrontation with the most ferocious hostile states is inevitable, which makes it necessary to continuously strengthen the country's nuclear deterrence to confront existing and new security threats and ensure its sovereignty, interests and right to development."
The DPRK leader, Kim Jong Un, added: "We are doomed to a longer confrontation with the most ferocious hostile forces, we are responsible not only for today, but for the future of this country. Therefore, the necessary and inevitable question of continuously strengthening the nuclear shield arises."
"The year 2025 will be a crucial year for the DPRK in strengthening its nuclear power," the KCNA reported, adding: "This year will be pivotal in the sense that it will mark an important turning point in the implementation of our party and government's plan to strengthen nuclear forces. Specifically, we will complete the implementation of the main tasks of the five-year plan and move on to the next phase of implementing the tasks."
| more of (International) |