GENEVA/WASHINGTON — Amid an international uproar over North Korea's latest and biggest nuclear test, one of its top diplomats said on Tuesday (Sept 5) that it was ready to send "more gift packages" to the United States.
It came after Washington warned that Pyongyang is "begging for war" and lobbied China and other members of the United Nations Security Council to cut off the supply of all oil and other fuels to the reclusive regime.
Mr Han Tae Song, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) ambassador to the UN in Geneva, was addressing the Conference on Disarmament two days after his country carried out its sixth nuclear test.
"I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force," he said.
"The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a 'gift package' addressed to none other than the US.
"The US will receive more 'gift packages' from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK."
South Korea's Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards its west coast.
The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, the newspaper said.
South Korea's defence ministry, which warned on Monday that North Korea was ready to launch an ICBM at any time, said it was not able to confirm the report.
Speaking to the Security Council in an emergency session on Monday, Ms Nikki R Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said North Korea's leader, Mr Kim Jong-un, "is begging for war."
"We have kicked the can down the road long enough," Ms Haley told the council in an emergency meeting. "There is no more road left."
She did not threaten unilateral military action by Washington or repeat the President Donald Trump's statement on Twitter that South Korea's effort to engage the North directly was a form of "appeasement".
She said instead that "the time has come for us to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it's too late."
Even as Ms Haley called for more diplomacy, Mr Trump agreed in a phone call on Monday evening with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, to allow Seoul to build more powerful non-nuclear ballistic missiles, said Mr Park Soo-hyun, a spokesman for Mr Moon.
Mr Trump tweeted last night: "I am allowing Japan and South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States."
The US' call for the fuel cut-off is expected to be part of a draft resolution it is beginning to discuss privately with other Security Council members.
It is far from clear whether China's President Xi Jinping would be willing to go along with the aggressive step of cutting off fuel to the North.
Roughly 90 per cent of North Korea's trade and nearly all of its imported energy supplies come from China.
Overall trade between China and the North was up significantly in the past 12 months, and it has long feared that an oil cut-off would lead to the collapse of the regime.
That, in China's eyes, would only invite South Korea to take over the North, and put an American ally on China's border.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Tuesday batted off a question at a briefing in Beijing about whether his nation would consider limiting oil shipments to North Korea.
"The actions and reactions of the Security Council will depend on the conclusions reached through debate by its members," Mr Geng said, according to an official transcript. "China will promote denuclearisation and the maintenance of stability on the Peninsula, and promote solving problems on the Peninsula through dialogue and consultation."
Russian leader Vladimir Putin also criticised sanctions as "useless and ineffective," instead urging the international community to offer security guarantees to North Korea.
"They'll eat grass but they won't abandon their programme unless they feel secure," he told reporters on Tuesday at an emerging markets summit in Xiamen, China, which was hosted by Mr Xi. AGENCIES