North Korea vowed on Monday to beef up its nuclear deterrent in
the face of the latest US plan to modernize nuclear weapons
production bases.
"The US feverish development of smaller nukes of new types and
modernization of nuclear weapons production bases targeted against
North Korea convinces the latter once again that its possession and
increase of a nuclear deterrent is an entirely just self-defensive
measure," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a
commentary.
"North Korea, a target of the US preemptive nuclear attack,
cannot but keep the sharpest vigilance against its spurred
preparations to put its doctrine of this attack into practice," the
KCNA said.
Linton Brooks, head of the US National Nuclear Security
Administration, said earlier this month that the United States
would need to retain both nuclear forces and capabilities to
sustain and modernize its military abilities.
It marked the first time that a top US government official
publicly signaled the world's No.1 nuclear power's abandonment of
the goal of nuclear disarmament.
"We will revitalize our weapons design community to meet the
challenge of being able to adapt an existing weapon within 18
months, and design, develop and begin production of a new design
within three to four years of a decision to enter engineering
development," Brooks told the House Armed Services subcommittee on
strategic forces on March 2.
The KCNA said, "The reality clearly proves that the US is a
nuclear fanatic and a rogue state threatening peace and stability
of humankind."
"The US modernization plan is, explicitly speaking, an extremely
adventurous nuclear war plan to bring a horrible nuclear disaster
to humankind. It is self-evident that this would spark off a
nuclear arms race in the international arena", said the KCNA.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2006)
