North Korea has vowed to push ahead with its Army First policy and rely on nuclear weapons to defend itself from the joint forces of the United States and South Korea. North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun told Russia's Interfax news agency that he would travel to Moscow on Sunday for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that aimed to avoid a further escalation of the crisis. But Pak stressed that his country would respond to any pressure with force, and that it would rely on nuclear weapons for deterrence. He said that he was travelling to Moscow at the Russian invitation and that his talks would focus on issues of bilateral relations and the most important international problems.