N Korea threatens to harm US if attacked

I / Seoul June 22, 2009, 13:19 IST

North Korea boasted of being a "proud nuclear power" and threatened today to harm the US if attacked, as tensions mounted over a possible crackdown on exports of suspected missile parts from the North.     

President Barack Obama said the US is ready to cope with "any contingencies" involving North Korea and vowed not to "reward belligerence and provocation."     

South Korea's YTN news network reported on Sunday that a US Navy destroyer tailing a North Korean ship, suspected of carrying missiles and related parts, was headed towards Myanmar in what could be the first test of new UN sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test.     

The sanctions — punishment for an underground nuclear test North Korea conducted May 25 — firm up an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorise ship searches in an attempt to thwart the regime's nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions.

Today, North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper called it "nonsense" to say the country is a threat to the US, and instead claimed Washington was the one threatening the North. The paper also warned in a commentary that the country is prepared to strike back if attacked.