NEW YORK (AP) – North Korea is ready to halt its nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea, the North Korean foreign minister told The Associated Press in an interview in which he also warned that his country won’t be cowed by international sanctions.
Just hours after North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in its latest show of defiance at the U.S.-South Korea exercises, Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong defended the country’s right to increase its military readiness.
“The escalation of this military exercise level has reached its top level. And I think it’s not bad – as the other side is going for the climax – why not us, too, to that level as well?” he said in his first interview Saturday with a Western news organization, at the North Korean diplomatic mission to the United Nations.
In response to the missile firing, the U.S. State Department announced early Sunday it was restricting Ri’s travel to U.N. functions only.
“Due to the DPRK’s firing of a ballistic missile this morning, we have determined it necessary to limit the travel of the visiting foreign minister and his delegation to only those places necessary for them to conduct their UN ?functions,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said.