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UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council should congratulate North Korea for its nuclear test instead of passing "useless" resolutions or statements, North Korea's U.N. ambassador said Monday. Pak Gil Yon told reporters he was proud of the North Koreans who conducted the test, and said the Security Council ought to be, too. Asked if the North planned any more tests, Pak said: "That will be enough. You don't think so?" The council was holding a meeting about the test, and several diplomats warned of tough measures, possibly including the threat of sanctions. "It will be better for the...

North Korea has defended its missile launches ahead of an Asian security forum expected to focus on them, describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a "political imbecile" for criticising the tests. The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused Dr Rice, who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for test-firing seven ballistic missiles on July 5, of distorting the facts. However, the communist state also came in for criticism from a United Nations official who said the launches had prompted a cutback in food aid. Dr Rice and her North Korean counterpart Paek...

Security Council 5490th Meeting (PM) SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA'S MISSILE LAUNCHES, UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTING RESOLUTION 1695 (2006) Demands Suspension of All Related Ballistic Missile Activity;Urges Country to Return Immediately to Six-Party Talks Without Precondition The United Nations Security Council today condemned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's recent test-firing of a series of missiles, and demanded that the North-East Asian country suspend all ballistic missile related activity and reinstate its moratorium on missile launches. Acting "under its special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security", the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1695 (2006), by the...

SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday accused the United States of planting and fabricating evidence of its alleged counterfeiting activities, citing the testimony of people it claimed were "foreign agents" working for Washington's Central Intelligence Agency and other "plot-breeding organizations." In a statement carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday, an unidentified spokesman for the North's Security Ministry said the country has arrested a number of "foreign criminals" who were taking pictures of what it said was a nonexistent drug factory in a town near its northern border with China. The statement did...

North Korea is deploying two new missile systems which could enable it to threaten the continental United States for the first time, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported today. American officials had previously claimed that North Korea was developing missiles, based on the Soviet submarine-launched SSN6, which were capable of hitting the United States. Jane’s said the new missiles, apparently based on SSN6, have a range of 1,500 miles or more. “The submarine-launched ballistic missile or ship-mounted version of this new system is potentially the most threatening,” Jane’s reported. “It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK and...