North Korea is demanding that the United States recognize it as a “legitimate nuclear weapons state” after recently conducting its fifth weapons test. A Pyongyang spokesman called the threat of further sanctions from “laughable.” “Obama is trying hard to deny the DPRK’s [North Korea’s] strategic position as a legitimate nuclear weapons state but it is as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm,” said a foreign ministry spokesman quoted by the official KCNA news agency.
