North Korea rejects call to halt nuclear tests
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees the test-firing of a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher at an undisclosed location in North Korea.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- North Korea's foreign ministry rejected calls to halt nuclear tests, calling them "a grave political provocation" by hostile forces.
- A meeting of the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions and avoid new nuclear tests.
- North Korea insists its nuclear weapons status is irreversible and claims to be a responsible nuclear-armed state, rejecting denuclearisation efforts by the US, South Korea, and Japan.
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SEOUL - North Korea’s foreign ministry on Sept 24 rejected an international statement urging it to halt nuclear tests, with a spokesperson calling it “a grave political provocation against our state” by “hostile forces”.
A meeting of ministers from the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty - a grouping of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands - said any new nuclear test by North Korea would be irresponsible and unacceptable.
The meeting in New York on Sept 22 urged Pyongyang to fully comply with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry described the country as a responsible nuclear-armed state, in a statement carried by state media KCNA.
In another statement carried by KCNA earlier in the day, North Korea’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui said Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons status is irreversible.
Choe was responding to a separate meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week between the United States, South Korea and Japan at which they reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, agreed in 1996, bans “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world, with the goal of reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons. REUTERS