North Korea Threatens to Resume Missile Testing

North Korean threatened on Saturday to resume its missile test with all the agreements with the Untied States repealed. Prior to the announcement, it had officially withdrawn from the Nonproliferation Treaty.

In a press conference held at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, its ambassador Choi Jin-su said, "It belongs to our sovereignty to decide whether to develop, test, deploy or export missiles." He also announced, "Our promise to freeze our missile program was made on the condition that the United States would stop its hostile policy and normalize its diplomatic relationship with us. Since all the agreements between the United States and us have been nullified, the temporary discontinuance of the missile test would not be an exception."

The series of announcements including Friday`s withdrawal from the NPT indicate what North Korea really wishes: securing the vantage point in the possible negotiations with the United States, by implying that it could link the nuclear weapons program to the missile development.

He went on to say, "We have no intention of developing nuclear weapons, and will limit our nuclear activities to peaceful purposes like generation of electricity. If the United States keeps employing its hostile pressuring policies and threatening our livelihood with nuclear threats, we would be forced to obtain appropriate means to deter the nuclear attacks by US."

Choi verified that any sanctions against North Korea would be considered as a declaration of war on it. He disputed the report that North Korea would return to the NPT once the Untied States decided to supply fuel oil again.

North Korea`s ambassador Park Gil-yon, in an interview with CNN on Saturday, said, “The US government has broken all the promises with us. Now, we will not honor our promise to freeze our missile-testing.”

Ever since it started the missile talks with the United States, North Korea had maintained that it would not test its ballistic missiles as long as the talks with the United States continued. North Korean leader Kim Jung Il also announced in May of 2001, “We will put on hold the ballistic missile tests by the year of 2003.”

The United States, in response to the latest threat by North, warned that North Korea`s threat to resume the missile test would only result in isolating its regime from the international community.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe announced yesterday that the Japanese government would take a series of sanctions on North Korea if the crisis triggered by North Korea`s nuclear threat gets higher. He said that Japan might prohibit North Korean cargo ship from anchoring at the Japanese port. The Japanese government has beefed up its intelligence-gathering operations through US military satellites to quickly determine whether or not North Korea takes any military actions including launching of missiles or secret penetration ships, Daily Yomiuri reported on Saturday.

In the meanwhile, Japan and the United States are considering creation of a special council to resolve the nuclear crisis, consisting of five UN Security Council members, Japan and South Korea, reported the newspaper yesterday.

On the other hand, the state-run newspaper of North Korea, in its Sunday editorial, alleged that the withdrawal of the NPT was North Korea`s answer to the hard-line policies of the United States and promised, "It is our revolutionary principle to play eye for an eye and teeth for the teeth. If the United States avoids its responsibility and keeps challenging us, we will turn into inferno the strongholds of the invaders." On Saturday afternoon, or the next day of its NPT withdrawal, North Korea held a rally in Pyongyang, for which 1 million people were mobilized, to criticize the US. It is the largest one ever since the 1990s.