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(2nd LD) N. Korea warns of further 'self-defense measure' should U.N. punish its nuclear test
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Friday it will take further "self-defense counter-measures" should the U.N. Security Council punish its second nuclear test, a stern message also directed at its allies, China and Russia.
The warning issued by the North's Foreign Ministry came as the five members of the Security Council and the countries most affected by the test -- South Korea and Japan -- were discussing ways to respond to Monday's atomic detonation.
If the Security Council "will make further provocative actions, this will inevitably lead to the DPRK's (North Korea's) approach toward adopting stronger self-defense counter-measures," the North said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Simultaneously, North Korea fired another short-range missile into the East Sea, the latest in a series of test-firings following Monday's nuclear blast.
The North called the permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- "hypocrites." Its nuclear test was the 2,054th in the world, with "99.99 percent" of such tests conducted by those five countries, it said.
"At present, some countries were shocked at the news of the DPRK's second nuclear test. But an exceptional act has its exceptional reason," the North said.
"Those countries have posed the biggest nuclear threats in the world. But they took issue with our first nuclear test" in 2006, the North said.
North Korea has sharpened its offensives against the U.N. council ever since the world body rebuked it for its April rocket launch. Pyongyang said the rebuke is unfair and breaches its sovereignty because the launch sent a satellite into orbit, a claim disputed by South Korea and the U.S., which believe it was a disguised long-range missile test.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his U.S. counterpart, Hillary Clinton, are set to meet in Washington on June 5 to discuss ways to deal with North Korea's military threats.
The North has the right to launch missiles and test nuclear weapons, it said, as the country is not a member of the international regimes banning those activities -- the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Missile Technology Control Regime.
"There is a limit to our patience," it said.
"It is none other than the U.S. and other forces courting U.S. favor who should be held entirely responsible for driving the situation to such a pass," the North said.
Military tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula amid a chain of actions and retaliations. In response to the North's nuclear test, South Korea joined a U.S.-led campaign, the Proliferation Security Initiative, in defiance of Pyongyang's warnings. North Korea swiftly retaliated by threatening military strikes against South Korean and U.S. naval ships operating near the volatile border in the Yellow Sea.
In an alarming sign, Chinese fishing vessels were leaving the Yellow Sea border region, according to a government source in Seoul. More than 280 Chinese vessels were fishing there earlier this week, but the number has dropped to about 140, the source said on condition of anonymity.
During the June crab-catching seasons of 1999 and 2002, two bloody skirmishes occurred along the Yellow Sea border called the Northern Limit Line, claiming the lives of scores of soldiers on both sides.
The armed forces of South Korea and the U.S. on Thursday raised their level of surveillance over North Korea.
The Cold War still continues on the peninsula, the North's statement said, and any Security Council move to punish its nuclear test will be tantamount to nullifying the Korean War armistice. The cease-fire accord, signed between North Korea and China on one side and the U.S.-led United Nations Command on the other, ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.
"Any hostile act by the UNSC immediately means the abrogation of the Armistice Agreement," the North said.
North Korea also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Barack Obama administration.
"The U.S. is keen on using a catchphrase 'Carrot and stick,' It would be better for the 'Donkey' of the U.S. Democratic Party to lick the carrot," it said.
Many analysts see a vicious cycle of North Korean provocations and international sanctions. Chang Yong-seok, an analyst with the non-governmental Institute for Peace Affairs, said North Korea may conduct a third nuclear test or launch inter-continental ballistic missiles if the Security Council adopts a new resolution on the North.
Pyongyang may also start building a uranium-enriching facility to build nuclear bombs, Chang warned.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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