North Korea to Obama: Return Nobel Peace Prize

SEOUL, March 23 (UPI) -- North Korea's state-controlled media blasted President Barack Obama for the nuclear weapons policy of the United States and demanded Obama return his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for violating the U.N. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Yonhap reported North Korea's newspaper Rodong Sinmun denounced the U.S. president on Monday, stating Obama's call for the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program, a backhanded move – just a few weeks after Obama observed the 45th anniversary of the U.N. treaty on nuclear weapons on March 6.

North Korea's state-controlled news outlet claimed the U.S. has 2,900 nuclear warheads in its possession.

"It is an absurd lie, an insult to humanity and a criminal act," the Rodong Sinmun stated, referring to U.S. censure of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and call for non-proliferation under Obama's nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, signed in April 2010.

Under the treaty's terms, the number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear missiles will be halved by 2021.

North Korea said the current supply of U.S. nuclear weapons violates the U.N. non-proliferation treaty and claimed the U.S. is preparing for a nuclear war.

"It would be best (for Obama) to return his Nobel Peace Prize, which was won on the grounds of absurd lies," the Rodong Sinmun wrote.

In January, President Obama declared financial sanctions against North Korea in response to the hacking of Sony Pictures, reported Politico. The Obama administration said North Korea was behind the attack.

On March 17, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said an Internet outage in North Korea was a retaliatory strike against Pyongyang for the hacking of Sony Pictures but declined to identify the agency responsible for the retaliation.