North Korea 'needs nuclear deterrent against US'

A North Korean legislator, on a rare visit to the European Union headquarters, said today that Pyongyang would not be swayed by the international condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear test and would not pay attention to criticism.

Ri Jong Hyok, a member of the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly, also told EU parliamentarians that the US financial sanctions against his country “suffocate our political system”, and asked the EU for development aid.

Ri said the nuclear test was a result of what he called severe pressure by the US, which he said threatened his country’s sovereignty.

“Whenever we take measures it is not necessary for us to look the others in the face.

"Every country has its own interest, no country can represent our interest,” Ri told the European Parliament’s committee for relations with the Korean peninsula during a meeting billed as an “exchange of opinion” between EU politicians and a four-member North Korean delegation.

“We have to take these measures so that we have a nuclear deterrent against the Americans,” Ri said through an interpreter.