North Korea has reacted to the UN Security Council's sanctions by threatening to weaponise plutonium. -- PHOTO: AP
SEOUL - NORTH Korea said on Saturday it would weaponise all of its plutonium and start enriching uranium in response to UN Security Council sanctions slapped on it for missile firings and a nuclear test.
'Firstly, all plutonium to be extracted will be weaponised. One third of used fuel rods have so far been reprocessed,' its foreign ministry said in a statement.
NKorea: 'Sanctions aim to disarm and suffocate us economically'
'It has become an absolutely impossible option for the Dprk (North Korea) to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons,' the statement said, adding it would consider any blockade as an act of war and would retaliate militarily.
The North said the sanctions aimed to 'disarm us and suffocate us economically' to dismantle the ideology and system chosen by the people.
'Secondly, we will start uranium enrichment,' it said, adding the North has successfully developed technology needed to enrich uranium after it decided to build its own light water reactors.
It also said it would consider any blockade as an act of war and said it would retaliate militarily.
The foreign ministry, describing the sanctions resolution as a 'vile product' of a US-inspired campaign, said the North would never abandon nuclear weapons and would treat any attempt to blockade it as an act of war.
The 15-member Council voted unanimously on Friday to slap tougher sanctions on the North to cripple its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Washington hailed Friday's measure but warned that Pyongyang might respond with 'further provocation.' The hardline communist state, in a foreign ministry statement on the official news agency, said that 'all plutonium to be extracted will be weaponised.' One third of used fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor have so far been reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium, it said.
'Secondly, we will start uranium enrichment,' it said, adding the North had successfully developed the necessary technology.
The North in 2002 had denied US claims that it was operating a secret uranium enrichment programme in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.
The plutonium-producing plants were shut down under a six-nation disarmament deal in 2007. But the North vowed to restart them after the Security Council in April condemned its long-range rocket launch. -- AFP
