North Korean Ambassador to China Ji Jae Ryong speaks at a press conference held at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014
On Tuesday Pyongyang's ambassador to China struck a similar tone, reminding the world his country has no interest in an Iran-style nuclear disarmament deal because North Korea is a "nuclear weapons state."
Ji Jae Ryong told reporters that the Iranian nuclear deal reached earlier this month was an achievement made through protracted efforts, but that North Korea was different to Iran because it is "a nuclear weapons state both in name and in reality." He said: "We are not interested at all in dialogue to discuss the issue of freezing or dismantling our nukes unilaterally first".
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North Korean soldiers watch as fireworks explode, Monday, July 27, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea as part of celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War
North Korea's nuclear program is a major regional concern. International talks over North Korea's nuclear disarmament have been stalled since early 2009. North Korean officials called Tuesday's news conference to reiterate Pyongyang's view that the "hostile policy" by the United States toward it is the root cause of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The US has stationed troops in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 conflict.
Six months after invading North Korean forces started the Korean War, North Korean leader and founder Kim Il Sung says in a speech that U.S. and South Korean forces were the actual invaders and had prompted his army to retaliate. Kim vows to annihilate the North's enemies.
Caption: In this 1951 photo, Kim Il Sung talks to a North Korean combatant at the battlefront. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
1994(02 of07)
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A North Korean negotiator threatens to turn Seoul into "a sea of fire."
Caption: Female North Korean traffic police officers gather in front of bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (credit:AP)
September 1996(03 of07)
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North Korea threatens "hundredfold and thousandfold retaliation" against South Korean troops who had captured or killed armed North Korean agents who had used a submarine to sneak into the South.
Caption: North Korean soldiers gather along a Pyongyang street during heavy snowfall on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (credit:AP)
January 2002(04 of07)
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After President George W. Bush labels North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran, Pyongyang calls the remark "little short of a declaration of war." North Korea's foreign ministry warns it "will never tolerate the U.S. reckless attempt to stifle the (North) by force of arms but mercilessly wipe out the aggressors."
In this Jan. 29, 2002 file photo, President George W. Bush gives his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Vice President Dick Cheney is at rear.(AP Photo/Doug Mills) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
November 2011(05 of07)
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A day after South Korea conducts large-scale military drills near the island hit by the North in 2010, the North's Korean People's Army threatens to turn Seoul's presidential palace into a "sea of fire."
Caption: In this Feb. 16, 2013, image made from video, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, waves as he attends a statue unveiling ceremony at Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang. (AP Photo/KRT via AP Video) (credit:AP)
April 2012(06 of07)
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North Korea holds a massive rally denouncing conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as a "rat." It says he should be struck with a "retaliatory bolt of lightning" because of his confrontational approach toward Pyongyang.
Caption: South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak attends the 15th ASEAN - South Korea Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
June 2012(07 of07)
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North Korea's military warns that troops have aimed artillery at seven South Korean media groups to express outrage over criticism in Seoul of ongoing children's festivals in Pyongyang. It threatens a "merciless sacred war."
Caption: South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (credit:AP)