North Korea has vowed to shift its nuclear development into high gear in its first official response to the recently announced North Korea policy by the Donald Trump administration.
 
North Korea's state-run media carried a statement by a foreign ministry spokesman released on Monday.

[Sound bite: Korean Central Television (May. 1/Korean)]
"Unless the U.S.' heinous anti-North Korea policies and nuclear threats are withdrawn, national-defense measures based on nuclear and preemptive strike capabilities shall be continuously bolstered."
"Multiple nuclear-weapons advancement measures will take place continuously at a time and venue the supreme leadership chooses."  

The statement also made it clear that the regime in Pyongyang will continue nuclear and ballistic missile experiments, saying that the tests will be continuously carried out at a time and venue determined by its leadership.
 
Mentioning the deployment of U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean Peninsula, the North also blamed the U.S. for escalating tensions, claiming the situation in the region “has never inched close to the brink of nuclear war as in the period of the recent drills.”

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