North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has ordered his military to be ready to use its nuclear weapons at any time, saying they were needed given the “ferocious hostility” of new “gangster-like” sanctions leveled against Pyongyang.
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Kim made the most recent warning while guiding the test-firing of a new large-caliber multiple launch rocket system, the KCNA report said. “We are aware of the reports”.
The Pentagon said it’s aware of North Korea’s change in military posture and is closely monitoring the situation along with our allies in the region.
In response to those sanctions, North Korea launched a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea on Wednesday.
A government statement called the United Nations sanctions the “most heinous worldwide criminal act” aimed at isolating and stifling the country.
The alleged readying of the North Korean nuclear arsenal puts the already precarious security situation of South Korea at further risk.
In cooperation with other countries, Japan will reinforce surveillance of the implementation of the sanctions that were decided by the U.N. Security Council.
China was “very reluctant” to stop importing minerals from North Korea, according to Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Virtually all of the DPRK’s (North Korea) resources are channeled into its reckless and relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction”, Power told the council after the vote, adding that the cargo inspection provisions are “hugely significant”.
Kim’s comments came amid heightened inter-Korea tensions, after the North conducted a nuclear test on January 6 and a rocket launch on Feb.7.
Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North project – which monitors North Korea – said: “In addition to activity at the test area, vehicles and personnel are present at the Sohae launch pad”.
But it has also been wrong-footed by Pyongyang on its nuclear plans and has backed the sanctions, however reluctantly.
Russian Federation said it hoped that the North Korea would “draw the right conclusions” and resume talks “to settle the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula”.
The attitude of USA officials is that they consider North Korea’s claim true because they can’t risk underestimating it, but the claim is not verified.
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The US-drafted United Nations resolution adopted by the Security Council laid out the toughest sanctions imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons program that will, if implemented effectively, apply significant economic pressure to Kim’s regime.
