Rejecting the "fuss" created by "some countries" over its nuclear tests, North Korea has criticised the big nations for, what it called, their attitude that only they can have nuclear weapons. "It is a gangster-like logic that only big countries could possess nuclear weapons and threaten small countries with them," North Korean representative Pak Gil Yon told a United Nations Committee. Such double standards, he asserted, have reduced the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and other disarmament conventions to "dead documents" without any binding force. He also rejected the demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons programme, and said it had manufactured "up-to-date nuclear weapons" after going through a "legitimate, transparent process" to deal with the United States' escalation of the threat of nuclear war and sanctions. The extreme threat of nuclear war from the United States, the North Korean diplomat said, had "compelled" his country to conduct the test, an "essential step" for nuclear deterrence and a measure for defence. He added that his country would never use nuclear weapons first or allow their transfer to any other country. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea would always sincerely implement its international commitment to non-proliferation as a responsible nuclear-weapon state. It would do its utmost to denuclearise the peninsula, and give impetus to world disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons," he said.
