The Chinese Xinhua News said:

The DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman said that his country had made sincere efforts to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula through dialogue and negotiations and exercised its maximum restraint to prevent the vicious cycle of the escalated tension.

This notwithstanding, the U.S. is letting loose sophism that if it is true that the DPRK restarted its nuclear facilities in Nyongbyon, that is a violation of its international obligation and commitments. It is misleading public opinion, claiming that the denuclearization on the peninsula precisely means the DPRK's dismantlement of its nukes.

The spokesman held that the denuclearization of the peninsula, an invariable policy goal of the DPRK, does not mean that it unilaterally dismantles its nukes first but it is the process of turning the whole peninsula into a nuclear-free zone based on the complete defusing of the outside substantial nuclear threats to the peninsula on the principle of simultaneous actions.

Action for action remains a basic principle for finding a solution to the nuclear issue on the peninsula and the DPRK will, therefore, not unilaterally move first, the spokesman noted, adding: As long as the nuclear threat from outside increases, the DPRK is compelled to bolster up its nuclear deterrent to cope with this and it will not be bound to anything in doing so.

The Chinese Huan Qiu Shibao and internet homepages, Voice of Russia, Voice of America and Jiji Press reported the statement under the title "DPRK reiterates its stand not to unilaterally dismantle its nukes first".