AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Seoul: North Korea's defense minister said Wednesday his country would wage “all-out, do-or-die resistance” after criticism from the United States and the UN Security Council over its missile tests.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Defense Minister Kim Il-Chol also said North Korea would employ “all possible means and methods, not bound by anything” in dealing with the situation.
North Korea test-fired seven missiles on July 5, earning a rebuke in a Security Council resolution. It has claimed to have nuclear weapons and has repeatedly said it needs a vigorous defense to deter the United States.
“It is a stark reality in the DPRK (North Korea) that it can survive without sweets but not without bullets,” Kim said in the statement, which KCNA said was issued at a meeting of top army, government and communist party officials.
The cash-strapped regime, which sees missiles as key to its defense as well as being a lucrative export, rejected the UN resolution and vowed to push ahead with its missile program.
Kim said North Korea would bolster its military deterrent “in every way by employing all possible means and methods, not bound to anything, to cope with the serious situation created on the Korean Peninsula due to the US extremely hostile act and the irresponsibility of the UN Security Council.”
North Korea will “deal deadly blows at the enemies' moves for aggression with all-out do-or-die resistance and unprecedented devastating strikes,” he said.
He also accused the United States and Japan of working hard to form an international alliance against the isolated communist country.
“It was a sheer brigandish act for the US to have used the UN arena for branding the DPRK's missile launches as 'a threat to the global peace and security' and got it to adopt a 'resolution' calling for international pressure aimed to force the DPRK to disarm itself and stifle it,” he said.
