N Korea celebrates happy nuke year

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20997530-1702,00.html


January 01, 2007 01:18pm

NORTH Korea marked the New Year proudly today, hailing its first nuclear test as one of the most auspicious events in the nation's history and vowing to boost its deterrent force even further.

The secretive country, which lays out policy priorities in the state media every January 1, said it would press ahead with developing information technology while continuing to boost farm production, the backbone of a country that still fails to grow enough food to feed itself.

"The DPRK's (North Korea's) access to a nuclear deterrent was an auspicious event in the national history as it meant the realisation of the Korean people's centuries-old desire to have national strength no one could dare challenge," said an editorial published in three official newspapers.

North Korea defied international warnings to conduct its first nuclear test on October 9, prompting the UN Security Council to order punitive sanctions.

"There have never been in the annals of the Korean revolution such (a) year as 2006 when the position of our country was raised to that of a full-fledged power and its dignity was strikingly manifested," said the joint editorial. An English-language text was carried by the official KCNA news agency.