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North Korea Vows Nuclear Test as Threats Intensify North Korea Vows Nuclear Test and Threatens U.S.
(about 1 hour later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch more long-range rockets and conduct its third nuclear test, ratcheting up tensions following the United Nations Security Council’s decision to tighten sanctions against the country for launching a rocket last month. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch more long-range rockets and conduct its third nuclear test, saying that it would build a capability to strike the United States in the wake of the United Nations Security Council’s tightened sanctions against the country.
A statement issued through its state-run media, the National Defense Commission, the North’s highest governing agency, headed by its young leader Kim Jong-un, appeared to directly threaten the United States. The North’s threat marked the boldest challenge its new, untested leader, Kim Jong-un, has posed at both his country’s longtime foe, the United States, and its last remaining major ally, China, and rattled governments in Northeast Asia that are undergoing sensitive transitions of power.
"A variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out,” the statement said. “A new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people." In a statement issued through state-run media, the National Defense Commission, the North’s highest governing agency, headed by Mr. Kim, said that “a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it” will be “targeted” at “the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.”
The statement, which used the acronym for the North’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, did not clarify when it would conduct such a test, which would be the first since Mr. Kim came to power in December 2011. But citing preparations at the Punggye test site in northeastern North Korea, South Korean officials and news media said that Pyongyang can conduct a new underground nuclear test there on short notice. The statement, which used the acronym for the North’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, did not clarify when it would conduct such a test, which would be the first since Mr. Kim came to power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.
North Korea had previously hinted at the possibility of conducting a nuclear test, as its Foreign Ministry did on Wednesday when it issued a scathing statement rejecting a unanimous resolution that the Security Council adopted on Tuesday. The resolution tightened sanctions and condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 rocket launching as a violation of earlier resolutions banning the country from conducting any tests involving ballistic missile technology. But citing preparations at the Punggye test site in northeastern North Korea, Army Col. Wi Yong-seob, deputy spokesman of the Defense Ministry of South Korea, said on Thursday, “North Korea can conduct a nuclear test as soon as its leadership makes up its mind.”
The North’s statement on Thursday indicated that Mr. Kim, despite recent hints of economic reform and openness in North Korea, was likely to follow the pattern his father, Kim Jong il had established when he ran the country: a cycle of a rocket launching, U.N. condemnation and nuclear test. North Korea had previously hinted at the possibility of conducting a nuclear test, as its Foreign Ministry did on Wednesday when it issued a scathing statement rejecting a unanimous resolution that the Security Council adopted on Tuesday. The resolution tightened sanctions and condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 rocket launching as a violation of earlier resolutions that banned the country from conducting any tests involving ballistic missile technology.
Mr. Kim’s posture threw a direct challenge to President Obama as he starts his second term, and to Park Geun-hye, who will be sworn in as president of South Korea next month. North Korea has since declared that it would shun any talk on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, adding that it would not give up its nuclear weapons until “the denuclearization of the world is realized.”
After years of tensions with North Korea, both Mr. Obama and Ms. Park recently said they were keeping the door open for dialogue with North Korea on the premise that such engagement would lead to the eventual dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. The North’s statement on Thursday indicated that Mr. Kim, despite recent hints of economic reform and openness in North Korea, was likely to follow the pattern his father, Kim Jong il, had established when he ran the country: a cycle of a rocket launching, U.N. condemnation and nuclear test.
On Thursday, the North’s National Defense Commission said the Security Council’s move convinced it to “launch an all-out action” to foil Washington’s hostile policy and “safeguard the sovereignty of the country and the nation.” It said that North Korea’s drive to rebuild its moribund economy and its rocket program, until now billed as a peaceful space project, will now “all orientate toward the purpose of winning in the all-out action for foiling the U.S.” “It’s a major test for Kim Jong-un,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. “Unlike the rocket launching in December, which the North has said was conducted because it was his father’s dying wish, a nuclear test will be Kim Jong-un’s decision, one for which he will be held responsible.”
“Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,” it said. By a “nuclear test of higher level,” North Korea most likely meant that it was seeking the technology of building nuclear warheads small enough to mount on long-range missiles, analysts here said. They said that North Korea could detonate a uranium bomb this time to demonstrate its ability to produce weapons-grade uranium. The North’s twp previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, used some of its limited stockpile of plutonium.
The North’s comments came as Washington reaffirmed its policy of punishing North Korea for moving toward the development of long-range missiles tipped with a nuclear warhead, spearheading international backing for the Security Council resolution. A nuclear test would compel both Washington and Seoul to take a tough stance, dispelling hopes that Mr. Kim might use the inaugurations of new government in Washington and Seoul to open a new path of engagement.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it would take “physical counteraction” to bolster its “nuclear deterrence both qualitatively and quantitatively.” Glyn Davies, Washington’s special envoy on North Korea, warned on Thursday that a nuclear test would be “a mistake and a missed opportunity” for North Korea.
In recent months, international experts have detected what appear to be new tunneling activities and efforts to fix flood damage in the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in northeastern North Korea. The North conducted an underground nuclear test in Punggye-ri in 2006 and in 2009. “This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” said Mr. Davies, who was visiting Seoul to coordinate the North Korea policies of President Barack Obama’s second-term administration and the incoming government of President-elect Park Geun-hye in Seoul. From Seoul, Mr. Davies will move on to Beijing and then to Tokyo to continue policy consultations with the new governments there.
North Korea said its Unha-3 rocket December put a scientific satellite into orbit. But Washington said the launching was a cover for testing technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles. After analyzing the debris of the rocket North Korea fired in December to put a satellite into orbit, South Korean officials said North Korea indigenously built crucial components of a missile that can fly more than 6,200 miles. President Lee Myung-bak, who will hand over the South Korean presidency to Ms. Park next month, said on Thursday that his “biggest worry” was that North Korea might launch a military provocation in time with the changes of hands in government in Seoul.
A new nuclear test by the North could help bolster its efforts to build a nuclear device small enough to mount on long-range missiles. On Thursday, the North expressed bitterness at China and Russia’s endorsement of the U.N. resolution, denouncing “those big countries” for “ failing to come to their senses.” It said that North Korea’s drive to rebuild its moribund economy and its rocket program, until now billed as a peaceful space project, will now “all orientate toward the purpose of winning in the all-out action for foiling the U.S. and all other hostile forces’ maneuvers.”
In recent years, North Korea has made it increasingly clear that it is determined to keep its nuclear weapons at whatever costs, undermining a once-popular belief that the Pyongyang government’s brinkmanship was a mere bargaining ploy designed to get as many concessions as possible in exchange for nuclear weapons. “They are making a brigandish assertion that what they launched were satellites but what other country launched was a long-range missile,” the statement said, insisting that North Korea had a sovereign right to test rockets.
Choi Jin-wook, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said, “This is a strong message from North Korea, basically saying that no matter how much economic aid it receives, no matter how flexible other countries become, it will be negotiating only on the premise that it will be accepted and treated as a nuclear power.” Moon Soon-bo, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute, said North Korea’s harsh reaction reflected the pain the isolated regime felt by the new resolution, which expanded the number of ways that countries can interdict and inspect cargo bound for the North.
He continued, “The North is sending a wake-up alarm to Washington and Seoul.” North Korea said Unha-3 rocket it launched in December put a scientific satellite into orbit. But Washington said the launching was a cover for testing technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles. After analyzing the debris of the rocket North Korea fired in December to put a satellite into orbit, South Korean officials said North Korea indigenously built crucial components of a missile that can fly more than 6,200 miles.
Analysts speculated on Thursday that North Korea might test-launch one of its KN-08 missiles. KN-08, first unveiled during a military parade in Pyongyang in April last year, is the North’s biggest missile deployed yet but has never been flight-tested, according to Seoul officials.