WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — North Korea is prepared to respond in case US President Donald Trump decides to use force against it, North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Kim In Ryong said in a press conference on Monday.
"If the United States opt for the military actions… DPRK [North Korea] is ready to react," Ryong stated. "DPRK was entirely just when it increased in every way its military capability for self-defense and preemptive act with a nuclear force at its pivot."
Earlier on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence said during his visit to South Korea that US military strikes on enemy forces in Afghanistan and Syria show the shift in Washington's strategy to halt North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
On April 14, US media said that US President Donald Trump might order a strike against North Korea in the event Pyongyang decided to carry out another nuclear weapon test. The reports came after Trump said that the North Korean nuclear issue would be "taken care of," while at the same time calling on China to pressure its neighbor into giving up its nuclear program. In response, the general staff of the North Korean armed forces threatened to launch a strike against US military bases in Japan and South Korea, as well as the presidential residence in Seoul in case of US aggression.
On April 15, North Korea reportedly test-launched a missile but the experiment failed.
The United States must change its policy toward North Korea in order to successfully move forward on the Korean peninsula, Kim In Ryong told reporters.
"Abandoning of US hostile policy towards DPRK [North Korea] is a precondition to any success on the Korean peninsula," he said.
Such actions, the ambassador noted, pose a big security threat.
The UN Security Council is due to hold a briefing later in the month on the issue of North Korean launching ballistic missiles and developing its nuclear program.
North Korea has stated it is against such a briefing because such a meeting constitutes an abuse of the mandate of the UN Security Council.
"As far as another nuclear test is concerned… it is something that our headquarters decided," Ryong stated. "At the time and at the place where our headquarters deemed necessary it will take place."
Ryong added that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made it clear that failures don’t deter him or his rocket scientists.
