By Patricia Lourdes Viray
MANILA, Philippines — North Korea's top diplomat defended his country's nuclear power and intercontinental ballistic missile tests among his colleagues during the ASEAN Regional Forum last Monday.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho said that Washington's hostile policy and nuclear threat towards Pyongyang is the root cause of the problem amid concerns from several foreign ministers.
Ri said this in the presence of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who also attended the ARF at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
"I expect that other member states of this forum and the ASEAN member states in particular will distinguish the essence of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula and the danger of the 'America First' policy and take impartial and practical stand and attitude," Ri said in his speech.
The foreign minister stressed that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons is a war deterrence to end the threat and to prevent the military invasion of the US.
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