North Korea rejects UN demands, vows to become 'nuclear weapons state'

[NBCNews]

After cancelling all non-aggression agreements with South Korea, North Korean officials continue to maintain that the country could carry out a preemptive nuclear strike against the U.S. By Jack Kim, ReutersSEOUL - North Korea formally rejected a U.N. Security Council  resolution on Saturday that demands an end to its nuclear arms program,  signaling it would defy international sanctions and pursue its goal of becoming  a full-fledged nuclear weapons state.

The Security Council unanimously  imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday, tightening financial  restrictions and cracking down on its attempts to transport banned cargo.  

The North's sole major ally China wants the sanctions fully implemented.  The sanctions are designed to make punitive measures more like those used  against Iran, which Western officials say have been surprisingly successful.  


The resolution, the fifth since 2006 aimed at stopping the North's  nuclear and ballistic missile program, coincides with a sharp escalation of  security tensions on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang's third nuclear test  on February 12.

"The DPRK, as it did in the past, vehemently denounces  and totally rejects the 'resolution on sanctions' against the DPRK, a product of  the U.S. hostile policy toward it," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said  in a statement.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the  Democratic People's Republic of Korea.   Related: N. Korea threat of nuclear attack not easily dismissedThe UN Security Council passes new sanctions on North Korea in the face of nuclear threats from the country's leaders. NBC's Kurt Gregory reports.   "The world will clearly see what  permanent position the DPRK will reinforce as a nuclear weapons state and  satellite launcher as a result of the U.S. attitude of prodding the UNSC into  cooking up the 'resolution.'"

The United States warned North Korea it  will achieve nothing by repeating threats of provocative actions and will only  drive itself deeper into international isolation.

"The United States of  America and our allies are prepared to deal with any threat and any reality that  occurs in the world," U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said ahead of his visit  to Afghanistan on Friday. "We are aware of what's going on. We have partnerships  in that part of the world that are important."

North Korea defied  international warnings and conducted a third nuclear test in February, setting  off a device that yielded a stronger blast than its previous test in 2009. It  claimed it had made progress in miniaturizing an atomic weapon.

Experts  are skeptical of such a claim, and the threat this week to attack the United  States, seeing them more as an attempt to boost its security leverage in the  face of deepening diplomatic isolation and growing military pressure from the  United States and South Korea, which are conducting joint military drills to  deter any armed aggression from Pyongyang.

Experts believe the North is  still years away from developing the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon to  the United States but say it can strike South Korea or Japan using its short and  medium-range missiles.

North Korea has accused the United States of  using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and  declared on Tuesday it would scrap the armistice with Washington that ended  hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas are technically at  war because the armistice and not a formal peace treaty ended their 1950-53  conflict.

South Korea and U.S. forces are conducting large-scale  military drills until the end of April. The North is also gearing up for a  massive state-wide military exercise.

Pyongyang's soaring anti-American  rhetoric is seen by experts as a ploy to be taken as a serious threat and to  force Washington back to the negotiating table.

A more likely option for  Pyongyang than a full-scale conflict is to stage a series of clashes along a  disputed frontier with the South, a sea border known as the Northern Limit Line,  which has been the scene of previous clashes.

Tensions on the Korean  peninsula have growing since the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in March  2010 widely blamed on North Korea, although Pyongyang denies responsibility. The  North in November that year bombed a South Korean island killing two civilians.  

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