Leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered North Korea’s nuclear arsenal readied for pre-emptive use at anytime, in an expected ramping up of rhetoric following the UN Security Council’s adoption of tough new sanctions on Pyongyang.
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The comments, carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency, marked a further escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula after the U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions against the isolated state on Wednesday for its nuclear program.
South Korea’s defense ministry said six projectiles either rockets or guided missiles fell into the sea around 100-150 kilometers off the North’s coast.
The North’s report didn’t say when the test-firing happened, but many in South Korea believe it likely refers to the six short-range projectiles that Seoul said North Korea fired into the sea on Thursday.
He instructed that the military should be ready to deliver the deployed nuclear warheads at any time for national defence.
North Korea views any outside criticism of its rights situation as part of a U.S.-led plot to overthrow its government, a reason why it says it needs nuclear weapons.
North Korea has not yet reacted officially to the news of the sanctions.
A U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said, responding to the report: “We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its worldwide obligations and commitments”.
South Korea and the United States on Friday launched a joint working group to hold talks on the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile system in South Korea to counter the North’s growing nuclear and missile threat, according to South Korea’s Defence Ministry.
The United Nations Security Council votes on a resolution during a meeting at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, March 2, 2016.
Over the last three years, Kim has attended the testing of the new multiple rocket launcher a total of 13 times, the North’s media said, noting his keen interest in the development of the formidable weapons system.
In an editorial, the state-run China Daily newspaper expressed its concern of the angry reaction from North Korea over the new United Nations sanctions.
“The only way for defending the sovereignty of our nation and its right to existence under the present extreme situation is to bolster up nuclear force both in quality and quantity”, the North’s dispatch said on Friday, paraphrasing Kim Jong-un.
“No kind of sanctions will ever work on us, because we’ve lived under USA sanctions for more than half a century”, said Pyongyang resident Song Hyo-il.
South Korea has remained on high alert after the tests.
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Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that “by shutting down, as much as possible, the financing of DPRK’s nuclear-ballistic programs, the idea is to ensure the return to the table of negotiations all the interested parties”.
