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SEOUL : North Korea on Sunday renewed a threat to "bolster its nuclear deterrent" while lashing out at the UN Security Council for condemning the communist state's April 5 rocket launch.
Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling communist party-published newspaper, denounced the UN action as a double-standard contrary to the universal right to use space peacefully.
"(North Korea) will bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence, guarantee for the protection of the country's sovereignty, right to existence and supreme interests," Rodong said in a commentary.
"The day will surely come when those resorting to partiality, double-standards and arbitrary practices meet the punishment of the history."
Tensions remain high over the North's launch, which the United States and its allies say was a long-range missile test disguised as a satellite launch.
Pyongyang on Tuesday announced it was quitting the six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament and would restart nuclear facilities in protest at a UN Security Council statement condemning the rocket launch.
US and UN nuclear inspectors were also expelled from the North.
The North's military warned on Saturday it would "opt for increasing the nation's defence capability including nuclear deterrent in every way" as the communist state would no longer be bound by a 2007 agreement on nuclear disarmament, adopted at the six-party talks.
It also repeated a warning against South Korea's planned participation in a US-led initiative to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction.
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's government, which had wanted to announce its participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) immediately after the North's rocket launch, is delaying the announcement.
The North, a leading exporter of missiles in recent years, has said the South's joining of the PSI would be tantamount to a declaration of a war.
"The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 kilometres (31 miles) away" from the border, the North's military spokesman said Saturday, suggesting the South's capital is vulnerable to northern military attacks in case of war.
Seoul says its plan to join the PSI remains unchanged, and a government announcement will come after inter-Korean talks on Tuesday.
In response to the North's latest military warning, Seoul's unification ministry said it was "lamentable" for Pyongyang to repeat intimidating words that undermine regional peace and stability.
"The government makes it clear that the PSI... is an initiative separate from inter-Korean relations and it is not a declaration of confrontation or a war against North Korea," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. - AFP/ms
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