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NEW YORK: North Korea has a “reliable and effective war deterrent for self-defense” and will now focus on developing its economy, North Korea’s ambassador to the UN Kim Song said on Tuesday (September 29), though recognized that international sanctions were an obstacle. .
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Kim also said that “the anti-epidemic situation in our country is now under safe and stable control” as a result of the measures taken to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. North Korea has said it has no confirmed cases, although some US officials have questioned that claim.
Already burdened by harsh international sanctions on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Pyongyang also faces significant economic damage from strict border closures and other measures aimed at preventing a coronavirus outbreak and struggling to cope with damage from recent storms. and floods.
“On the basis of its reliable guarantee to safeguard the security of the state and the people, the DPRK now directs all its efforts towards economic construction,” Kim said, using his country’s formal name: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“It is a fact that we urgently need a favorable external environment for economic construction,” he said. “But, we cannot sell our dignity just in the hope of a brilliant transformation, the dignity that we have defended as valuable as our own life. This is our firm position.”
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He said North Korea was still being threatened by military equipment such as stealth fighters used on the Korean peninsula and “nuclear attack means of all kinds are aimed directly at the DPRK.”
“Genuine peace can only be safeguarded when one possesses the absolute strength to prevent war itself,” Kim said. “As we have obtained reliable and effective war deterrence for self-defense by tightening our belts, the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the region are now firmly defended.”
Independent UN sanctions monitors reported to the UN Security Council in August that North Korea was pushing with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it “has probably developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit the warheads of its ballistic missiles. “.
READ: North Korea disobeys nuclear sanctions: UN report
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump have met three times since 2018 but failed to advance US calls for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons and North Korea’s demands. to end the sanctions.
North Korea’s ruling party plans a congress in January to decide on a new five-year plan, state media reported last month, after a party meeting noted serious delays in improving the national economy and living standards.
