It was, North Korea insisted, a "self-defensive measure" against "continued hostility" by America.
North Korea "will further increase its nuclear deterrent as a self-defensive measure as long as the US... pursues a nuclear stand-off", it said.
It was "in retaliation against this," said the North Korean report, that the North's warships "were compelled to take a self-defensive step" in which there was "an exchange of fire between the two sides, causing losses".
"The talks have made us believe that we have no other choice but to strengthen our nuclear deterrent force as a self-defensive means," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Kim had earlier called the explosion "a self-defensive step" meant to protect the region "from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists", a separate KCNA dispatch said.
But they took issue with our first nuclear test, which was conducted in October 2006 as a self-defensive measure to cope with increased nuclear threats by the U.S., terming it a "threat to the international peace" and adopted the sanctions resolution against the DPRK.
Kim's first public comments about last week's test came in a visit to the country's military headquarters, where he called the explosion "a self-defensive step" meant to protect the region "from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists," according to a dispatch on Sunday from the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
This early-stage platelet deposition and accumulation triggers the initiation of hemostasis, a self-defensive mechanism to prevent the body from excessive blood loss.
The typical gater seems to believe that his movement is diverse, his goals reasonable, his quest for objectivity justified and his viewpoint wholly (and conspiratorially) misrepresented by a self-defensive global media.
The North Korean foreign ministry said its nuclear weapons were a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.
