As South Korea and the United States began their week-long joint Navy drills in the waters around the Korean peninsula on Monday – North Korea released a statement justifying its nuclear program. A North Korean lawmaker said that was America’s antics that compelled Pyongyang to develop and successfully test what was by far its most powerful nuclear weapon yet. Addressing the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Deputy Chairman of North Korea’s parliament An Tong Chun argued that U.S. military pressure was the primary inspiration for Pyongyang’s decision to pursue its nuclear and ballistic weapons program, despite heavy international sanctions. He said, “It was the United States who prompted the DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to create a hydrogen bomb and ballistic missiles. We are determined to build up our nuclear forces until peace in struggle with the United States is secured. North Korea will never discuss its right to nuclear weapons as long as the United States keeps its nuclear threat and belligerent policy towards North Korea”. Now, North Korea has claimed that it has a right to create, test and possess nuclear and ballistic weapons as a deterrent against an invasion from hostile powers such as the U.S., but the U.S. and a number of other countries, including North Korea’s closest traditional ally, China, have objected to Kim Jong Un’s actions. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has previously protested Kim Jong Un’s moves, signed a decree affirming Moscow’s commitment to a November 2016 UN Security Council resolution that implements harsh sanctions against North Korea and individuals believed to be linked to its nuclear weapons program. Earlier this month, a Russian lawmaker who returned from a visit to Pyongyang said that North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile which it believes can reach the west coast of the United States. According to South Korean intelligence officials and analysts, North Korea might time its next provocation to coincide with China’s all-important Communist Party Congress that begins on Wednesday. Meanwhile, on Monday, the European Union banned the sale of oil and oil products to North Korea, in a largely symbolic move aimed at encouraging countries that have more significant levels of trade with the country to follow suit.
