UNITED NATIONS — North Korea Tuesday spurned South Korea’s offer of development aid in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons, saying “this can never, ever, be a political bargaining chip.”
UNITED NATIONS — North Korea Tuesday spurned South Korea’s offer of development aid in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons, saying “this can never, ever, be a political bargaining chip.”
North Korean counselor Sang Beom Lim was speaking in the “right of reply” session at the end of the annual General Assembly speeches, when countries unleash their most outspoken diplomats to counter arguments made by other countries in their high-level speeches.
He spoke a few hours after North Korea’s vice foreign minister, Pak Kil Yon, blamed the “hostile policy” of the United States for continuing tension on the divided Korean Peninsula.
Pak told the U.N. General Assembly the U.S. is aiming at military domination of Northeast Asia and has designated North Korea as “its first attack target.”
Pak also contended the U.S. was abusing the power of the U.N. Security Council, and that a January resolution tightening sanctions on the North for a long-range rocket launch was unfair.
Sang said later, in the “right of reply” session, North Korea “and its people have been living with nuclear weapons and bombs over their heads for decades.” Under these “provocations” North Korea had no option other than to obtain nuclear weapon itself as a deterrent, he said.
Sang rejected a South Korean offer of economic aid conditional on the verifiable nuclear disarmament of North Korea saying the nuclear umbrella was needed to protect the North from South Korea and the U.S.