Pyongyang, September 04: North Korea is in the final stages of enriching uranium, the country’s state media has said, a process that could give it a second way to make nuclear bombs.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean officials have informed the UN Security Council that the process of enrichment was entering “the completion phase”.
The country has already tested two plutonium-based nuclear weapons and has long been suspected of running a parallel effort to develop uranium-based weapons.
KCNA said the North’s decision to push ahead with its nuclear programs was a reaction to Security Council’s moves to tighten sanctions against the country following its second test of a nuclear weapon in May.
The report called the resolution a “wanton violation” of North Korea’s sovereignty and dignity.
“If some permanent members of the [council] wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue.”
The letter pointedly blamed the Security Council’s decision to impose sanctions following its April rocket launch, while taking no action following one by South Korea last month.
“Had the UNSC, from the very beginning, not made an issue of the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) peaceful satellite launch in the same way as it kept silent over the satellite launch conducted by South Korea on August 25, 2009, it would not have compelled the DPRK to take strong counteraction such as its 2nd nuclear test,” the letter said.
The US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have been negotiating with North Korea for years in an effort to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions.
However, North Korea walked away from the talks earlier this year, saying the so-called six-party process was dead and announcing that it was scrapping all previous agreements.
Al Jazeera’s Nick Spicer, reporting from the United Nations, said the North Korean statement will likely be seen as a defiant move, especially given that the US has just taken on the rotating presidency of the Security Council.
The US has said it will make non-proliferation the top priority of its time in the presidency.
Our correspondent says the North Korean announcement will also likely be seized upon by critics of the Obama administration to say policy that the White House’s policy of engagement with North Korea and other so-called rogue regimes is a failure.
–Agencies–