North Korea promises response to U.N. sanctions

SEOUL, Oct 17 (Reuters) North Korea has denounced sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council in response to its nuclear test last week, saying they were tantamount to a declaration of war, its official media reported today.

The statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesman, first broadcast on North Korean TV and later carried in its print media, said Pyongyang would not bow to U.S. pressure.

''The U.N. Security Council resolution, needless to say, cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of war against the DPRK because it was based on the scenario of the U.S. keen to destroy the socialist system of Korean-styled centred on the popular masses,'' its KCNA news agency reported the spokesman as saying.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

''The DPRK vehemently denounces the resolution, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and totally refutes it,'' it said.

The statement said North Korea has the right to possess nuclear weapons but it did not mention if North Korea would conduct another test.

''The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war. It wants dialogue but is always ready for confrontation,'' it said.

The comments mostly reiterated statements made in official media and by a North Korean envoy at the United Nations when the communist state denounced the U.N. measures to hit it for testing a nuclear device on October 9.

Reuters SP DB1257