SpaceDaily.com reports: “North Korea has warned the United States it will ‘seriously’ consider returning to a state policy aimed at building nuclear weapons if Washington does not end tough economic sanctions against the impoverished regime.

For years, the North had pursued a ‘byungjin’ policy of simultaneously developing its nuclear capabilities alongside the economy.

In April, citing a ‘fresh climate of detente and peace’ on the peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the nuclear quest complete and said his country would focus on ‘socialist economic construction’.

But a statement issued by the North’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang could revert to its former policy if the US did not change its stance over sanctions.

‘The word ‘byungjin’ may appear again and the change of the line could be seriously reconsidered,’ said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency late Friday…”