Seoul, South Korea- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and a test launch of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
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“Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status”.
In order to boost the reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent still further, Kim said “a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads will be conducted in a short time to further enhance the reliance of the nuclear-attack capability”.
After the North’s report, South Korea’s defense ministry cast his doubts on the North has acquiring missile re-entry technology. The resolution also bans conventional arms sale as well as delivery of aviation and rocket fuel to Pyongyang.
Sanctions were tightened in response.
North Korea controversially carried out a nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket last month.
While China remains North Korea’s biggest source of economic help and diplomatic support, it agreed to the new measures out of frustration at Pyongyang’s defiance of both previous United Nations resolutions and Beijing’s persistent calls to avoid provocations.
Wang had rejected the Japanese foreign minister’s repeated request for telephone talks after North Korea’s nuclear test in January.
Senior Obama administration officials are anxious the next military provocation by North Korea will prompt South Korea to drop its past posture of restraint and conduct a major military counterattack against the North that could trigger a new Korean war.
The North Korean leader issued the threat as he supervised a successful simulation of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile, according to the North’s state media earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, South Korean President Park Geun Hye warned that North Korea was on a risky path. “North Korea will walk the path of self-destruction if it does not change”, Park said at a cabinet meeting.
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Pyongyang, known for its trademark fiery rhetoric in times of tension with the outside world, has also been stepping up its threats after Washington and Seoul last week began annual military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.
