Pyongyang rejects U.N. Security Council statement, warns U.S. of retaliation


South Korea’s Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said Wednesday it was time to consider a fundamental change in the international community’s response to North Korea, which has persistently tried to develop nuclear weapons and launch missiles over the past 20 years.

“If you look at the past 20 years, the same scenes are repeating continually. What has not changed in those scenes is that North Korea has been continuing to develop missiles and nuclear arms,” Yu told reporters in Seoul.

“I am paying heed to both domestic and international experts who have raised the question of how much longer we should let this keep going in a vicious circle.”

He noted that his comments did not mean that the six-party nuclear talks needed to change.

However, South Korea will not expand “flexible” measures toward the North under the current circumstances, Yu said.

He did not rule out the possibility of the North conducting a third nuclear test, but said it was not right to preempt it.

His comments came as North Korea on Tuesday rejected the U.N. Security Council’s presidential statement condemning its rocket launch, calling it “unreasonable,” and vowed to continue to exercise its right to develop space programs.

“Firstly, we resolutely and totally reject the unreasonable behavior of the UNSC to violate the DPRK’s legitimate right to launch satellites,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The North blamed the U.S. for breaking the Feb. 29 deal and warned of retaliation.

Pyongyang said it will no longer be committed to the so-called Leap Day deal with Washington under which the country agreed to put a moratorium on missiles and nuclear programs and to allow IAEA inspections of nuclear facilities in exchange for 240,000 tons of nutritional assistance.

“We have thus become able to take necessary retaliatory measures, free from the agreement. The U.S. will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences,” the North said.

However, the U.S. said it was Pyongyang who broke the deal first.

“It was a pledge of commitment that North Korea took,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said at a press briefing.

“We undertook a commitment to look at nutritional assistance at the same time. Given the fact that they’ve reneged on their commitments by launching this satellite, then we’ve suspended our side of the commitment.”

South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Lim Sung-nam, who visited Washington on Tuesday for consultations with the U.S. on the North’s rocket launch, said there was “no need any more” to talk about the Feb. 29 deal.

Lim is to meet White House officials and Korea experts on Wednesday before returning to Seoul the following day.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)