North Korea says it may resume nuclear tests, cites ‘hostile’ US

North Korea said Wednesday that it was considering resuming nuclear and missile tests, citing a “hostile” United States, according to the country’s Korean Central News Agency.

The country had self-imposed a moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range missiles, according to a report from Reuters. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) “to discuss and decide immediate work and important policy issues of the Party and the state.”

The latter half of the meeting focused on North Korea’s relationship with the U.S, which has become increasingly tense amid several North Korean missile tests that have occurred recently. The politburo’s meeting focused on developing “countermeasures against the U.S. for the future.”

North Korea also accused the U.S. of “recklessly faulting for no reason the DPRK’s legitimate exercise of sovereignty.”

The Party claimed that the U.S. has continually threatened the security of North Korea by shipping strategic weapons into South Korea, as well as that it has “viciously slurred our state” by taking sanctions against North Korea and persisting in “maneuvers to deprive the DPRK of its right to self-defence.”

The meeting report stated that “hostile policy and military threat by the U.S. have reached a danger line that can not be overlooked any more despite our sincere efforts for maintaining the general tide for relaxation of tension in the Korean peninsula since the DPRK-U.S. summit in Singapore.”

The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee unanimously decided during the meeting to prepare for “a long-term confrontation with the U.S. imperialism.”

The news comes amid increased pressure on the Biden administration to take action on an increasingly aggressive North Korea, which has flexed its military muscle with missile launches. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken characterized Pyongyang’s weapons tests as “profoundly destabilizing,” adding that the U.S. is working with regional partners including South Korea and Japan to come up with a response. 

However, President Biden made no mention of the tensions in his lengthy press conference on Wednesday where he tackled a range of issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, student loans, his legislative agenda and the threat of Russian invasion at the Ukraine border.