North Korea Vows Toughest Response to U.S. ‘Hostile Policy’ and Rejects Denuclearization Goal

North Korea has rejected the United States’ reaffirmation of a goal of complete denuclearization, saying it will continue responding to Washington’s “hostile policy” with the strongest possible measures.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson issued the statement after U.S. officials repeated that Washington remained committed to North Korea’s complete denuclearization. The spokesperson said those remarks showed that the United States’ confrontational position toward North Korea had become clearer.

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There has been not the slightest change in our policy toward the United States of responding to its unchanged hostile policy with the strongest possible measures to the very end.

Pyongyang also objected to U.S. criticism of its human rights record and to plans for Freedom Edge, a multidomain exercise involving South Korea, the United States and Japan. It described the human rights criticism as an attempt to damage the country’s image and create internal instability.

The spokesperson accused the Trump administration of reaffirming a continuing hostile policy through what North Korea called denuclearization pressure, human rights allegations and military threats. The statement said such policies were intensifying tensions on the Korean Peninsula and creating structural instability in the region, making expectations for tension reduction meaningless.

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The United States’ permanent hostile policy toward North Korea is evolving into a more dangerous form.

North Korea also criticized what it described as an increasingly offensive U.S. nuclear posture, Japan’s rearmament within the three-way military cooperation framework, and South Korea’s military buildup. It used those developments to justify strengthening its own nuclear forces.

“Our nuclear weapons are the absolute guarantee of protecting our sovereignty, and possessing and continuously strengthening them is the most responsible and accurate choice for ensuring peace and security in the region,” the spokesperson said. North Korea insisted that its nuclear status, which it said had been made permanent under its highest law, would not be weakened by repeated U.S. calls for denuclearization.

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Our nuclear weapons are the absolute guarantee of protecting our sovereignty, and possessing and continuously strengthening them is the most responsible and accurate choice for ensuring peace and security in the region.