N. Korean assembly chief claims US, S. Korea preparing to 'actualize' nuclear war
Pak In-chol, chairman of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, made such a claim during a United Nations-led gathering of top legislators around the world in Switzerland, blaming the US and other Western countries for causing "instability and chaos" to maintain their "hegemonic position."
"The advanced preparations of the United States and the ROK to actualize a nuclear war have entered the gravity stage," Pak said through an interpreter at the sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.
"This impels the DPRK to take every necessary measure in response to such geopolitical crisis. Possessing capabilities to cope proactively with various security threats ... is an issue of vital importance of our state for defending its sovereignty, security threats and territorial integrity," he said.
The ROK is short for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
Pak said that the North will never tolerate the "high-handedness, arbitrariness of the U.S. and its following forces," and will "fully discharge its responsibility" to defend international justice.
Pak also claimed that his country is carrying out various activities under its development road map for the "prosperity and happiness" of its people, including long-term construction plans and other measures to improve education, health care and science.
"Our people are achieving miraculous successes in their struggle for overall development," Pak said.
South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik attended the meeting and delivered a speech calling for communication channels between the two Koreas to be kept open even as inter-Korean relations remain frayed.
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