North Korea says UN sanctions are a declaration of war

The U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test are a declaration of war, and the country will “deal merciless blows” if the nation’s sovereignty is violated, the North’s central government said Tuesday in its first response to the U.N. measures.

The North wants “peace but is not afraid of war,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The sanctions, passed unanimously Saturday by the U.N. Security Council, ban the sale of major arms to the North and orders the inspection of cargo to and from the country. The U.S.-initiated measure also calls for the freezing of assets of businesses supplying the North’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.

North Korea carried out its first test of a nuclear weapon on Oct. 9, drawing widespread condemnation.

The isolated communist nation said it “vehemently denounces the resolution, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward (the North) and totally refutes it.”

“The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war” against the North, also known at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the statement said.

The country warned that if anyone used the U.N. resolution to infringe on the country’s sovereignty, “it will deal merciless blows at him through strong actions.”

The North “will closely follow the future U.S. attitude and take corresponding measures,” the statement said, without specifying what those measures would be.

Pyongyang said that it would not bow to pressure.

The North “had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons,” the statement said. “It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state.”

South Korean and Japanese government officials said Tuesday that they had information pointing to a possible second test by the North, but could not confirm it.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill — the chief U.S. nuclear envoy — said the North’s latest statement was “not very helpful.”

“I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what the international community feels about its actions,” Hill told reporters in Seoul after a meeting with his South Korean and Russian counterparts.

South Korea’s top nuclear envoy was also dismissive of the North’s statement.

“There are no surprises, but the usual rhetoric that they have been using at the time of the adoption of the Security Council resolution,” said Chun Yung-woo at the start of the three-way meeting.

Meanwhile, a North Korean military official said Tuesday the communist nation would not use its nuclear weapons if the U.S. threat of attack against the North is removed, according to a report by a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan.

“We have nuclear weapons, but they are not for striking others,” Song Jong Chol, an official at the North’s Panmunjom mission at the border with South Korea, said in an interview with the Choson Sinbo newspaper.

“The neighboring countries shouldn’t ever be worried about North Korea’s nuclear weapons,” Song said. “If the enemies provoke, we would be compelled to fight. But if the U.S. threat and interference is removed and our people of the North and the South can live happily why would we need to rely on nuclear weapons?”

Associated Press