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DPRK military warns against sanctions for rocket launch

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-18 18:51

PYONGYANG -- A spokesman for the general staff of the army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that the DPRK would view as a declaration of war any sanctions imposed on the country because of its recent rocket launch.

The DPRK "will consider sanctions to be applied against the DPRK over its satellite launch or any pressure to be put upon it through "total participation" in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as a declaration of a war against it," the official KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed general staff spokesman as saying.

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"Its revolutionary armed forces will opt for increasing the nation's defense capability, including nuclear deterrent in every way, without being bound to the agreement adopted at the six-party talks," the spokesman said.

"There is no limit to the strike to be made by the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK," the spokesman said.

The DPRK said it successfully launched a rocket mounted with an experimental satellite on April 5.

The UN Security Council on Monday condemned the launch, saying it was "in contravention of Security Council Resolution 1718 " and demanded that the country "not conduct any further launch."

The angry DPRK declared a pull-out of the six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

South Korea, after the DPRK launch, was considering joining the PSI, which was designed to stop the trade of weapons of mass destruction.

The PSI would let South Korea stop and board DPRK ships sailing in its territorial waters when suspected of carrying arms or other materials that is considers illicit.