South Korea's vice foreign minister warned North Korea on Monday that its efforts to sustain itself by focusing on its nuclear weapons program and exploiting its people will prove to be "futile and self-destructive."  

During a special lecture at a gathering of world journalists in Seoul, First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam also said that the leadership in Pyongyang must be pressed "much harder" until it renounces its nuclear ambitions.

"It is time to make the North Korean regime clearly realize that efforts to sustain itself by exploiting its people and concentrating resources on nuclear and missile development will be futile and self-destructive," he said during the lecture at the Journalist Forum for World Peace.

"We can no longer afford to be pushed around by North Korea's deceit and intimidation," he added, noting that if unchecked, the North's nuclear program will pose an even greater threat not only to South Korea but also to the stability of Northeast Asia and beyond.

Pyongyang has been ratcheting up military tensions with threats of a pre-emptive strike against Seoul and Washington, and tests of short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Recent satellite imagery has also shown a surge in the movement of workers, vehicles and equipment at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country's northwest, deepening concerns over the possibility of Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test.

Lim said the international community can ultimately bring the recalcitrant country "to the right side of history."

"My firm belief comes from the fact that the international community, including China and Russia, has never been more united in the determination to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," he said.

"Now is the time to create an environment in which North Korea cannot survive without changing its calculations."

The vice minister also underscored that the North's decades-long nuclear issue is "not a problem created by Mother Nature" but a man-made issue to which the international community can finally find a solution through concerted efforts.

Lim also used his meeting with world journalists to call for their support for the ongoing international campaign against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

"Each and every journalist in this hall is also strongly encouraged to join the global campaign to remind North Korea as poignantly as possible that its pursuit of nuclear weapons will serve no one's interests, including its own," he said. (Yonhap)