North Korea warned it would fire an intercontinental ballistic missile — or even carry out another nuclear test — unless the UN apologizes for condemning the regime’s April 5 rocket launch.
By flaunting its rogue nuclear and missile programs, Pyongyang raised the stakes on Wednesday in the escalating diplomatic tit for tat with the outside world. North Korea also said it would start generating nuclear fuel — an indication the regime would begin enriching uranium, another material used to make an atomic bomb.
North Korea is known for its use of brinksmanship and harsh rhetoric to force the West to react, but the threat of a nuclear test is significant.
The Security Council must apologize for infringing on the North’s sovereignty and “withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative resolutions and decisions” against the North, the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Otherwise, the regime “will be compelled to take additional self-defensive measures,” including “nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles,” the ministry said.
The US criticized North Korea’s latest maneuver.
“Let me just say very clearly that these threats only further isolate the North,” US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. “We again call on the North Koreans to come back to the [negotiating] table ... We’ve heard these types of threats before.”
South Korea’s foreign ministry expressed “serious concerns” about the warnings and criticized Pyongyang for challenging the international community.
“We make it clear that the international responsibility for worsening the situation will be entirely on North Korea,” the ministry said in a statement.
Professor Kim Yong-hyun at Seoul’s Dongguk University called the North’s threat rhetoric designed to trigger a response from the administration of US President Barack Obama, which has yet to fully reveal its North Korea policy.
“The North is trying to maximize the stakes as the United States keeps ignoring it,” he said.
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