MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Pyongyang expects the next US presidential administration to abandon Washington's aggressive policy toward North Korea, the country’s Ambassador to Russia Kim Hyun Joong said on Wednesday.
"It’s not important for us who is the president of the United States. The most important thing is whether the new administration continues its hostile policy toward North Korea, which is anachronistic, or abandons it. The United States are the main reason for us to have nuclear armament, we develop our missile technologies because of the threat from Washington," the ambassador told RIA Novosti.
According to the diplomat, "military pressure and economic sanctions turned North Korea into a military power that could strike the United States."
The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea were engaged in a series of six-party peace talks with North Korea until 2009, when Pyongyang withdrew after carrying out a nuclear test. Since 2009, the six stakeholders have not been able to reach new grounds for negotiation.
In 2016, the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions against the North Korea in 2016 in response to Pyongyang's nuclear test and missile launches. Japan, South Korea and the United States later introduced additional sanctions against the country.
In the latest New Year's address to the nation, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un said the country was finalizing preparations for another intercontinental ballistic missile test.
