North Korea’s foreign minister warned the United States on Tuesday that it would pay a "terrifying price" for spearheading international sanctions against Pyongyang, hours after Secretary of State John Kerry criticized the country’s nuclear program.
"We are ready to show that even a [powerful] country will surely not be safe if it tries to torment and harm a small country," Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said during a regional security conference hosted by Laos.
Ri said the U.S. had issued a declaration of war when it condemned North Korea’s human rights record, which prompted the latest wave of U.S. sanctions against the regime earlier this month. North Korea was already bound by U.S. and United Nations sanctions in response to its nuclear weapons tests.
Kerry pressed member states at the ASEAN Regional Forum on Tuesday to enforce all standing sanctions and said that Pyongyang’s ambitions to attain nuclear weapons is "very provocative and deeply concerning."
He criticized North Korea as "the only country in the world defying the international movement towards responsibility" by continuing to develop its missile program.
Ri, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said that North Korea would likely pursue another nuclear-bomb test after it carried out a nuclear detonation this year, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News agency. He said the isolated nation would continue to develop nuclear weapons to counter the "never-ending nuclear blackmails of the U.S."
Ri said Washington had ruined the possibility of a "nuclear-free" Korean peninsula, but added that Pyongyang would be a "responsible" nuclear state that would only use the weapons if under direct threat.
North Korea launched its latest nuclear test in January and carried out multiple missile tests since February this year.
"Together we are determined … to make absolutely certain that [North Korea] understands that there are real consequences for these actions," Kerry said.
Kerry also called on North Korea to follow Iran’s example and sign an agreement to curtail its nuclear program.