North Korean leader urges nuclear readiness
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country’s nuclear weapons should be ready for use “at any time”, state media report. He told military leaders the country would revise its military posture to be ready to launch pre-emptive strikes, the Korean Central News Agency said. It came after the UN imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea over a recent nuclear test and missile launch. The North also fired six short-range projectiles into the sea on Thursday.
A South Korean spokesman told Yonhap news agency the projectiles were fired at about 10:00 local time (01:00 GMT) from Wonsan on the east coast. They were either rockets or guided missiles, the defence ministry said. “We must always be ready to fire our nuclear warheads at any time,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA on Friday. Speaking at a military exercise, he said enemies were threatening North Korea’s survival. “At an extreme time when the Americans… are urging war and disaster on other countries and people, the only way to defend our sovereignty and right to live is to bolster our nuclear capability,” Mr Kim was reported as saying.
BBC Korea correspondent Steve Evans says such blood-curdling rhetoric is not unusual from North Korea and experts doubt it has the ability to make a bomb small enough to put on a feasible missile, though it does appear to be moving steadily towards that goal. Kim Jong-un’s announcement brought a swift response from the US. “We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to impose some of its strongest ever sanctions against North Korea. All cargo going to and from the country must now be inspected, while 16 new individuals and 12 organisations have been blacklisted. The new measures are in reaction to North Korea’s recent nuclear test – its fourth since 2006 – and satellite launch, both of which violated existing sanctions. The North’s nuclear programme has long been a cause for alarm in the region. (BBC News, 2016)
