North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that his country would soon conduct tests of nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the North’s KCNA news agency reported.
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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.
“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes”, the report added. “But the United States remains committed to a diplomatic solution to this (North Korea’s nuclear) problem”, the envoy told reporters on Friday.
Marzuki Darusman said North Korea is devoting huge resources to developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction while many of its citizens lack sufficient food. The KCNA report did not say if Kim gave specific dates for the tests.
“No. Our policy is not a regime change (in North Korea)”, he emphasized.
“We have proudly acquired the re-entry technology, possessed by a few countries styling themselves as military powers… thus making a great progress in the ballistic rocket technology that helps strengthen the independence of the country’s defense capability and munitions industry”, it said.
Separately, Park welcomed the parliamentary endorsement of a bill meant to improve North Korea’s dismal human rights record, saying the North’s human rights situation is an issue that must not go unaddressed.
China, North Korea’s most important ally, has reaffirmed its commitment to fully implement United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang over its recent nuclear tests and missile launches. The claims were accompanied by pictures of the leader standing alongside what state media said was a miniaturised nuclear warhead.
North Korea has launched six long-range rockets as part of what it calls a satellite development program.
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Experts have also said there have been no tests of the re-entry technology needed to bring a nuclear warhead back into the atmosphere to strike a target – and following the regime’s established pattern of responses, Kim on Tuesday that this technology had been proven in the laboratory. “Based on our military’s analysis, we believe that the North has yet to secure such technology”, said South Korea’s Defence Ministry spokesperson Moon Sang-gyun.
