International News

SEOUL, Sept 16, (APP/AFP) – North Korea said Saturday it
was bent on nothing less than military “equilibrium” with arch-enemy the United States with a full nuclear arsenal, forcing UN powers into fresh crisis talks.
Kim Jong-Un successfully fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic
missile over Japan on Friday, responding to the latest round of UN embargos
over its sixth nuclear test with its furthest-ever missile flight.
The UN Security Council, which has condemned the launch as “highly
provocative,” will hold a new ministerial-level meeting Thursday on the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, focused on enforcing sanctions on
Kim’s regime, diplomats said.
North Korea’s young leader said Friday’s launch had increased the North’s
“combat power of the nuclear force”.
“Our final goal is to establish the equilibrium of real force with the US
and make the US rulers dare not talk about military option for the DPRK,” he
said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kim said the country was close to the goal of completing its nuclear
ambitions and should use all power at its disposal to finish the task, saying
it had “nearly reached the terminal”, KCNA reported.
“We should clearly show the big power chauvinists how our state attain the
goal of completing its nuclear force despite their limitless sanctions and
blockade,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
The Security Council this week imposed a new raft of sanctions on
Pyongyang, slapping an export ban on textiles, freezing work permits to North
Korean guest workers and placing a cap on oil supplies.
But the impact of those sanctions depends largely on whether China,
Pyongyang’s ally and main economic partner, will fully implement them and on
Russia, which is hosting tens of thousands of North Korean workers.
The United States called for Thursday’s meeting of the Security Council, to
be held during the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders at the UN.
President Donald Trump will also meet the leaders of Japan and South Korea
on the sidelines of the General Assembly to address the crisis.