North Korea blasted the U.N. Security Council, which includes its allies China and Russia, on Friday for criticizing its nuclear test and warned the country will respond to any new sanctions with further "self-defense measures."
The warning, issued by the North's Foreign Ministry, came
as the five members of the Security Council, South Korea and
Japan were discussing ways to punish the North's second underground
nuclear test Monday.
"Should the U.N. Security Council attempt further provocations,
our further self-defense measures will be inevitable in response,"
the North said in a statement carried by the official Korean
Central News Agency.
The North called the permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- "hypocrites" for criticizing its rocket launch and nuclear test. The North's atomic explosion was the 2,054th in the world, with "99.99 percent" of such tests conducted by those five countries, it said.
(Article continues below)
The North called its nuclear test a self-defense measure to respond to the Security Council's punishment for its April 5 rocket launch. The Security Council had tightened economic sanctions on North Korea for launching a long-range rocket in violation of a 2006 resolution.
Resolution 1718 was adopted in response to North Korea's first nuclear test that year.
