News / Interviews

Sanctions will fail to make N Korea accede to US bullying: Ex-sentaor

Saturday, 24 February 2018 9:04 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 24 February 2018 9:04 AM ]

This photo taken on February 8, 2018 and released on February 9, 2018 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows Hwasong-12 ballistic missiles during the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean People's Army at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by AFP)

A former American senator says the new package of US sanctions will fail to make North Korea accede to Washington’s demands and denuclearize itself as Pyongyang sees its nuclear program as a defense mechanism in the face of US attempts to depose its government.

“The nuclear position that they (North Koreans) hold is what provides their major defense against the United States making an effort to unseat their government, and that is what’s been going on since the Korean War,” Mike Gravel told Press TV on Saturday.

The three-year conflict came to an end in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, meaning that North and South Koreas remain technically at war.

The commentator went on to say, “Why do we insist on not having a peace treaty? The reason is very simple. It’s because we don’t want to acknowledge the sovereignty of the North Korean government.”

North Korea’s post-war nuclear efforts, he said, “were all based on the fact that we want to depose them as a government.”

“This is part of the American government’s policy to go round the world and try and change governments,” an agenda which is “an integral part of American imperialism,” said Gravel, stressing, however, that such an agenda “has failed” and “will continue to fail.”