North Korea Vows to Pursue Nuclear Weapon Despite Sanctions

TOKYO (Sputnik) — In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the ruling North Korean party has vowed to boost military muscle and preventive strike capabilities.

The Workers' Party regards its nuclear deterrence as the backbone of its defences that will protect the nation against the United States and its cronies, the agency said.

North Korea has hailed the latest and strongest nuclear weapon test on September 3 as a great victory that has raised the reclusive communist state to the status of a nuclear power. Later, on November 28, DPRK has tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet, known as the Hwasong-15, which is, according to Pyongyang, capable of reaching any target within the mainland United States.

Pyongyang has remained defiant after a series of UN, US and EU sanctions were imposed on it over illegal nuclear and missile programmes. The latest US-drafted resolution backed unanimously by the UN Security Council slashed the North’s petrol imports.

Recently, a senior North Korean official has publicly stated that the North Korean nuclear weapons programme is intended only for the United States, claiming that it "shatters the US ambition to secure its supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region and safeguards peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and its region".