01 May 2014

Editorial: North Korea Pulls Back From Nuclear Brink?


By Zachary Keck

North Korea has signaled that it may delay a fourth nuclear test… for now.

North Korea appeared to pull back from the nuclear brink on Tuesday, after weeks of signaling that it is preparing for a fourth nuclear test.
In a statement attributed to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry and published on the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang said that there was “no statute of limitations” on its previous threat to conduct a “new form of nuclear test.”
Most of the statement rehashed President Barack Obama’s recent Asia trip from the viewpoint of Pyongyang, which has repeatedly argued that Obama’s trip was geared towards entrenching American hegemony in Asia and ramping up hostility against North Korea. However, the final paragraph read in part:
“The DPRK will advance along the road of bolstering up nuclear deterrent, unhindered, now that the U.S. brings the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the DPRK. There is no statute of limitations to the DPRK’s declaration that it will not rule out a new form of nuclear test clarified by it in the March 30 statement. This is the exercise of the inviolable right to self-defense [emphasis added].” 

Read the full story at The Diplomat