A North Korean official Wednesday insisted that his country's communist regime needed to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself against a U.S. nuclear threat, Kyodo News reported.
Ro Jong Su, a director-level researcher at the North Korean foreign ministry, gave a rare interview in Pyongyang to the Japanese news agency in which he reiterated the Stalinist nation's policies.
"Nobody will believe the claim that Japan and South Korea are exposed to a 'nuclear threat' because they are under the 'nuclear umbrella' of the United States, which has the biggest number of nuclear weapons in the world," Ro said, according to Kyodo.
"So we have no choice but to possess nuclear (weapons) to fill the nuclear vacuum in the region," he said.
North Korea staged its second nuclear test in May, in addition to a series of missile tests, prompting international condemnation. The UN Security Council then passed a resolution imposing sanctions against the North.
In response to the sanctions, Pyongyang has vowed to build more nuclear bombs and to start a new weapons program based on uranium enrichment.
Ro rapped Japan for taking a hardline approach towards the North, which kidnapped Japanese nationals to train its spies during the Cold War. Tokyo believes Pyongyang is still keeping kidnapped victims.
"Japan may believe it can draw some concession from us by imposing pressure. But that is wrong," Ro told Kyodo.
He also dismissed the view that North Korea's nuclear weapons could lead to an arms race in East Asia, saying that "Japan and South Korea are effectively the same as nuclear powers" because of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
Some Japanese politicians and political pundits have suggested building up their nation's military to counter North Korea's nuclear weapons.
Such talk, Ro said, is "not intended to protect the country, but to arm the country with nuclear weapons by using us as an excuse."
Ro repeated Pyongyang's stance that it would never return to the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, but suggested the country will seek bilateral talks with the U.S., Kyodo reported.
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