In this June 27, 2008 file photo from television, the 60-foot-tall cooling tower is seen before its demolition at the main Nyongbyon reactor complex in Nyongbyon, also known as Yongbyon, North Korea.(Photo: Anonymous, AP)
North Korea on Tuesday said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>it has restarted operations at its atomic bomb fuel production plants, in a move that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pushes<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Pyongyang further toward a standoff with Washington and its allies.
The secretive state<span style="color: Red;">*</span>says it is fully ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States "and other hostile forces"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at any time if they "persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards the (North)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and behave mischievously."
In state media, the North said its plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at the main Nyongbyon nuclear complex had been “rearranged, changed or readjusted and they started normal operation.”
It follows a warning by Pyongyang on Monday that it is ready to launch "satellites" — which the West considers banned long-range missiles — aboard long-range rockets<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>mark the ruling communist party's anniversary next month.
The 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party falls on Oct. 10.
The director of the North’s National Aerospace Development Administration told Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>scientists were pushing forward on a final development phase for a new earth observation satellite for weather forecasts.
On Tuesday,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>South Korea’s Defense Ministry said a rocket launch will be a "serious provocation," a military threat and a violation of U.N. resolutions, Yonhap reported.
In a briefing, the ministry’s spokesman Kim Min-seok said:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"South Korea and the United States are jointly watching for all possibilities with regard to North Korea's (potential) long-range missile launch,” according to the news agency. “So far, no particular signs have been seen."
North Korea has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range rocket. After several failures, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in late 2012. The U.N. said it was a banned test of ballistic missile technology and imposed sanctions. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology.
An angry North Korea then conducted its third nuclear test in February 2013, inviting further international condemnation and sanctions.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Washington sees North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.
Contributing: Associated Press
Powered By WizardRSS.com |
Full Text RSS Feed
