N Korea unmoved as world unites against its nuke dreams
16 Dec 2017 5:04 PM GMT
United Nations: North Korea's friends and enemies have joined forces in opposing its determination to be recognised as a nuclear weapons state and calling on leader Kim Jong Un to negotiate the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, but the North gave no sign of budging on its nuclear ambitions.
In a very rare appearance by a North Korean at the UN Security Council, Ambassador Ja Song Nam told a ministerial meeting that the country's possession of nuclear weapons was "an inevitable self-defensive measure" to defend the country against "the US nuclear threat and blackmail."
Ja never mentioned the possibility of talks. Instead, he called the council meeting "a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."
He pointed to the November 29 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts say could reach the US mainland.
South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told the council that North Korea is "in the final stages of nuclear weaponisation" and warned that if it can put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile "it will fundamentally alter the security landscape in the region and beyond."
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