SEOUL (Agencies)
North Korea on Saturday threatened military action if the United States tried to isolate it after the U.N. Security Council unanimously decided to impose widened sanctions against the reclusive communist state for a nuclear test in May.
The sanctions resolution approved Friday banned all weapons exports from North Korea and most arms imports into the state. It authorized U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.
The foreign ministry, describing the sanctions resolution as a "vile product" of a U.S.-inspired campaign, said the North would never abandon nuclear weapons and would treat any attempt to blockade it as an act of war.
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Raising tension " It has become an absolutely impossible option for the DPRK (North Korea) to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons," the statement said, adding it would consider any blockade as an act of war and would retaliate militarily " North Korean statement A statement from the ministry on the official news agency, said that "all plutonium to be extracted will be weaponised."
One third of used fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor have so far been reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium, it said.
"Secondly, we will start uranium enrichment," it said, adding the North had successfully developed the necessary technology.
North Korea has raised tension in the region in the past months by test-firing missiles, restarting a plant to produce arms-grade plutonium and holding the May 25 nuclear test, which put it closer to having a working nuclear bomb.
The North in 2002 had denied U.S. claims that it was operating a secret uranium enrichment program in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.
The plutonium-producing plants were shut down under a six-nation disarmament deal in 2007. But the North vowed to restart them after the Security Council in April condemned its long-range rocket launch.
"It has become an absolutely impossible option for the DPRK (North Korea) to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons," the statement said, adding it would consider any blockade as an act of war and would retaliate militarily.
Studies have shown that U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for missile testing and its only prior nuclear test in 2006 had almost no impact, while its meager trade actually increased due to lax enforcement of those measures. |
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Third atomic test North Korea followed up its May 25 nuclear test by testing short-range missiles U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the resolution sent a "clear and strong message" to Pyongyang.
Washington hailed Friday's measure but warned that Pyongyang might respond with "further provocation."
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said from Washington that "based on past experience and North Korea's pattern of reckless and dangerous actions, it would not be a surprise if North Korea reacted to this very tough sanctions regime in a fashion that would be further provocation."
U.S. intelligence officials believe it will respond with a third atomic test, according to sources quoted by American TV networks.
The North followed up its May 25 nuclear test with testing short-range missiles, renouncing the armistice on the Korean peninsula and threatening possible attacks on South Korea.
Seoul has sent some 620 Marine reinforcements to two border islands amid the high tensions.
The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms" the nuclear test and "demands that the DPRK not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology."
It declares that Pyongyang "shall abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and immediately cease all related activities."
A key question will be whether China, the isolated North's major ally, will seriously implement the sanctions. |
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Succession North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il South Korea's defense minister said this week the North's saber rattling is to build internal support for leader Kim Jong-il, 67, as he prepares for succession in Asia's only communist dynasty.
Since Kim took over in 1994 and launched his guiding "military first" policy, the North's economy has grown weaker and an estimated 1 million people died in a famine in the late 1990s.
North Korea will be high on the agenda when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak goes to Washington this week for a summit with President Barack Obama.
"One of the most important reasons for North Korea continuing its nuclear ambitions is to consolidate the power to stay within the Kim Jong-il family," Lee said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. |
