2nd LD Writethru: Top leader says DPRK will strive for world denuclearization

Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said that his country will strive for world denuclearization and fulfill obligations of nuclear non-proliferation, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Kim emphasized that his country will not resort to nuclear weapons first unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by hostile forces with nuclear weapons, the report said.

He made the remarks in a report delivered at a national congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the first in 36 years.

Kim stressed that the WPK has worked hard for the implementation of the strategy of pushing forward economic growth and nuclear development at the same time.

At a plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee in March 2013, Kim put forward the "Line of Byungjin (Line of Parallel Development)" to simultaneously push forward economic growth and bolster nuclear capability. The strategy is said to be a further development of concurrent growth of national defense and economy, which was introduced by late leader Kim Il Sung, the younger Kim's grandfather.

In his report at the national party congress, Kim stressed that the government will improve and normalize relations with those countries that respect the sovereignty of the DPRK and are friendly "though they had been hostile toward it in the past."

On Jan. 6, the DPRK carried out a purported hydrogen bomb test, or its fourth nuclear test, followed by a long-range rocket launch a month later. The DPRK's acts were against UN Security Council resolutions and provoked strong condemnation from the international community.

The Security Council on March 2 adopted a new resolution to impose tougher sanctions against the DPRK.

Despite the DPRK's repeated self-claim as a nuclear weapon state, the international community has not acknowledged its status as a member of the nuclear-weapon club.

Meanwhile, the South Korean military has warned that the DPRK may have finished preparations for a fifth nuclear test, saying that the DPRK can conduct another nuclear test at any time at its main nuclear site Punggye-ri. Endi