In this regard, KCNA had an interview with Ri Kyong Chol, a section chief, and Jong Hyok, a researcher, of the Law Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences.

Question: Would you like to tell me about the motive of the DPRK's nuclear test?

Answer (Ri): The U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK has reached an extreme phase and its high-handedness has become more rampant after the DPRK's satellite launch.

Thereby, the DPRK had no other choice but to react to it with military muscle.

The 3rd underground nuclear test was a self-defensive measure taken by the DPRK in response to the U.S. and its followers' anti-DPRK moves over its satellite launch, recognized as a legitimate right of all sovereign states under the International Outer Space Treaty.

The U.S. prodded the UN Security Council into cooking up an anti-DPRK "resolution" over its satellite launch, creating an unprecedentedly acute situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The UNSC "resolution on sanctions" has no ground in view of international law. It is just a product of the U.S. sense of antagonism and antipathy for a country with different idea and social system and its arrogant view that a small country should be obedient to a big one.

If the DPRK remains a passive onlooker to the "resolution", it will be left without right to use outer space and, furthermore, the right to existence as a sovereign state.

Such arrogant action of the U.S. should be countered only with strength. The U.S. has threatened a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK with its satellite launch as an excuse, thus posing a biggest threat to its security.

By international law any state has a right to take any step needed to defend its supreme interests. Hence, the DPRK openly conducted the nuclear test.

Q: The U.S. persistent nuclear threat prompted the DPRK to get access to nukes. What do you think about it?

A (Jong): The U.S. has long deployed a number of nuclear weapons in and around south Korea, starting with the shipment of nuclear missile Honest John into south Korea half a century ago, in violation of the Armistice Agreement.

Terming the DPRK an "axis of evil", the U.S. adopted a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK as one of its policies. And it has annually carried on "Key Resolve", "Foal Eagle" and other military exercises for preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK.

This forced the DPRK, which is technically at war with the U.S., to get access to nukes.

The DPRK's nuclear deterrent serves as a sure guarantee for defending the nation's sovereignty and dignity and ensuring peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world.

Q: I think the successful 3rd underground nuclear test displayed the might of DPRK's strong deterrent.

A (Ri): You are right. The recent test was no more than a prelude to the toughest measures to be taken by the DPRK to cope with the U.S. imperialists' reckless provocations.

International bodies and foreign experts are of the view that the explosive power of the latest nuclear blast is ten times more powerful than the first one and two times more than the second.

This proved in an objective way the correctness of the KCNA report that the test was conducted on a high level with the use of smaller and lighter yet more powerful A-bomb unlike the previous ones.

The test is as good as a punishment to the U.S. hostile bid to hinder the DPRK's peaceful development as well as a serious warning to the hostile forces hell-bent on the anti-DPRK moves.

The DPRK has already stated that it will take tougher steps as long as the U.S. persists in its anti-DPRK moves.

Time will prove that victory in an all-out action against the U.S. and for the cause of justice is in store for the Korean people.