North Korea reactivates its nuclear program

North Korea said Saturday it started reprocessing spent fuel rods to make weapons-grade plutonium, in an apparent response to a United Nations decision to punish it for a controversial rocket launch.

The statement came hours after the U.N. slapped sanctions on three North Korean firms accused of backing missile development, in its first concrete action against Pyongyang over the April 5 rocket launch.

Defense against hostile forces

"The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency.

"This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces."

North Korea announced on April 14 it would quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and restart its atomic weapons program in protest at the U.N.'s statement condemning the launch.

Pyongyang says it put a satellite into orbit but the United States and its allies say it conducted a disguised long-range ballistic missile test and failed to successfully launch the satellite.

Six to eight bombs

The North had been disabling parts of the Yongbyon nuclear complex as agreed under a February 2007 six-nation deal involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

But six-party negotiations stalled last December because of disputes about ways to verify its declared nuclear activities.

Analysts say it will take three to four months before the North completes reprocessing some 8,000 spent fuel rods from the reactor in Yongbyon to obtain plutonium.

"It will then have produced some six to eight kilograms (13-18 pounds) of weapons-grade plutonium, which can be used to produce one or two bombs," Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

The North, which carried out its first nuclear test in October 2006, reportedly put the size of its plutonium stockpile at 31 kilograms when it handed over a nuclear declaration in June 2008.

If all has been turned into weapons, the North might have six to eight bombs, experts say.

This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces

North Korea foreign ministry spokesman

A call to sanction

The move by the U.N. sanctions committee bans transactions and calls on U.N. member-states to freeze the assets of two defense-related companies --Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation and Korea Ryonbong General Corporation -- along with the Tanchon Commercial Bank.

Turkish Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who heads the sanctions committee, said the nations also updated a list of items that cannot be traded with North Korea.

The update includes "some of the latest technologies relevant to ballistic missile programs," Ilkin told reporters.

Pak Tok-Hun, North Korea's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, denounced the new measures as a "wanton violation" of the United Nations charter.

"It is the inalienable right of every nation and country to make peaceful use of outer space," Pak said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Seoul Friday after a visit to Pyongyang, renewed his stance that sanctions against North Korea were "not constructive."

It is the inalienable right of every nation and country to make peaceful use of outer space

Pak Tok-Hun, North Korea deputy Rep.

A direct threat

Nonetheless, the Security Council statement activated the sanctions committee formed under U.N. Resolution 1718, which was passed after the North's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself from U.S. military threats.

The country, marking the anniversary of its military Saturday, announced it would deal a "merciless strike" against the U.S. and its allies should they try to invade.

"Should the imperialist U.S. and its followers touch even an inch of our territorial land, air or sea, our troops of the Korean People's Army will deal a merciless strike of justice to the enemies to destroy them and thoroughly eradicate the roots of war on the Korean Peninsula," the communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said.

Should the imperialist U.S. and its followers touch even an inch of our territorial land, air or sea, our troops of the Korean People's Army will deal a merciless strike of justice to the enemies to destroy them and thoroughly eradicate the roots of war on the Korean Peninsula

North Korea Communist party newspaper