The Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification and the Ecuador-Guaranda Institute for Friendship and Cultural Solidarity with the Korean People said this in a joint statement issued on January 8.

The statement went on:

The DPRK's first H-bomb test was an exercise of the independent right of a sovereign state.

Independence of the country and nation should be protected by its own efforts in the present world where all sorts of injustice and jungle law prevail owing to the highhanded and arbitrary practices of the U.S.

The world progressive people hail the successful H-bomb test of the DPRK, fortress of justice, and are rejoiced over it as their own.

We wish the Korean people bigger successes in the building of a thriving socialist nation and the drive for independent and peaceful reunification of the country with the pride of being the people of a nuclear weapons state with H-bomb.