North Korea slams Pentagon report labeling it ‘a persistent threat'

ISTANBUL

North Korea on Wednesday dismissed a Pentagon report describing Pyongyang as a “persistent threat,” saying the world's biggest threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) comes from the US.

"As for the 'persistent threat,' it is an expression most suitable for the US, the world's biggest WMD-armed state and the only criminal state that used A-bombs, which has labeled the DPRK as an 'enemy' and escalated unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail against it since the last century," a spokesman for North Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

Pyongyang criticized the US for revealing its “dangerous intention for aggression" to threaten the North and seize "global military hegemony," said KCNA.

Such threats have compelled Pyongyang to “strongly counter with powerful deterrence the ever-more reckless medium- and long-term threat posed by the US seeking to use WMDs against the DPRK.”

During a crucial parliamentary meeting attended last week by leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea included provisions in its constitution to bolster its nuclear capabilities.

The move came a year after it passed a new law allowing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons and declared its status as a nuclear state "irreversible."

The US Defense Department described Iran and North Korea as “persistent threats” in its Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction released last Thursday.

Russia is viewed as an “acute threat” and China remains a “pacing challenge” according to the strategy report.