North Korea threatens fresh nuclear tests

North Korea threatens fresh nuclear tests
By Christian Oliver in Seoul
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 29 2009 09:36 | Last updated: April 29 2009 09:58
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2043629c-3498-11de-940a-00144feabdc0.html


North Korea on Wednesday threatened to test a nuclear device unless the UN Security Council apologises for imposing sanctions, heightening already strained tensions on the peninsula.

Pyongyang’s defiant threat came as a response to sanctions imposed over the communist state’s launch of a long-range rocket over Japan on April 5. This would be North Korea’s second such test, after first detonating an atomic device underground in 2006, sparking international outrage.

“If the UN Security Council does not apologise, we are going to conduct an intercontinental ballistic missile test and a nuclear test, as a self-defence measure,” the North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement released by the official KCNA news agency.

“We have decided to build a light-water reactor plant and are going to develop uranium enrichment technologies.”

South Korea had no immediate comment.

Tensions are running at a 10-year high on the peninsula, with the North insisting a second Korean war is imminent. North Korea has torn up its non-aggression pacts with the affluent South and is threatening not to recognise a tense maritime border.

Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s dictator, is furious that Lee Myung-bak, South Korea’s conservative president, has insisted that Pyongyang apply to Seoul for much-needed food aid. This is anathema to the North, which regards itself as the only legitimate government on the peninsula.

Political analysts speculate Mr Kim could be trying to win direct talks with Barack Obama, the US president, through his latest round of brinkmanship. However, the US has said it will not be bullied into negotiations by Pyongyang’s sabre-rattling.

The UN sanctions blacklisted three North Korean companies and Pyongyang has already retaliated by saying it will restart reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods, a process that can yield weapons-grade plutonium.

The US has accused Pyongyang of running a clandestine uranium enrichment programme, but South Korean security sources do not believe this has reached the industrial level needed to be effective.