North Korea has
described comments by Theresa May on the
nuclear threat that Pyongyang poses to be "absolutely astonishing."
A spokesman for the
North Korean foreign ministry told the state-run Korea Central News Agency,
"It is illogical that the DPRK's nuclear weapons pose a threat to the UK.
"It is a pity
that the UK makes an excuse for the building of [nuclear submarines] by
finding
fault with the DPRK, thousands [of] kilometres away from it."
North Korea's
comments - which are extremely mild in comparison with some of the threats that
it regularly fires off in the directions of Seoul and Washington - come after
the new British prime minister led the debate in Parliament over the future of
the UK's nuclear submarine force.
Mrs May insisted
that the threats to the UK from countries such as Russia and North Korea
"remain very real," while there will be more potential dangers in the
future.
"We must
continually convince any potential aggresors that the benefits of an attack on
Britain are far outweighed by their consequences and we cannot afford to relax
our guard or rule out further shifts which would put our country in grave
danger," she said. North Korea dismissed that claim.
"The DPRK does
not regard the UK's nuclear weapons as a threat to it," the ministry
official told KCNA. "Therefore, the UK has no need to regard the DPRK's
nukes as a threat to it."
The statement added
that while Britain committed troops to the UN forces that took part in the
Korean War, from 1950 to 1953, Pyongyang "does not regard it as an enemy
as they established diplomatic relations based on mutual respect and
equality."
On the same day that
Mrs May delivered her speech in Parliament, the North Korean premier, Pak
Pong-ju, sent a congratulatory letter on her appointment as prime minister. He
expressed hope that May would be successful in developing the country and that
relations between London and Pyongyang would "grow strong in mutual
interests."
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