U.S. warns North Korea over nuclear plant ‘provocation’

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said the reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility had been restarted two years ago-along with uranium enrichment.

He added that the “position of the United States and this a position that is shared by countries around the world, including significant players in the region that we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, and that’s why we urge North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that threaten regional peace and security”.

The country is believed to be working towards developing an intercontinental ballistic missile mounted with an atomic warhead that could hit targets in the mainland United States.

However it is yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile or can make reliable long-range missiles.

The White House issued the statement after North Korea warned it is ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States at “any time”.

Ballistic missiles and rockets used in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. The two sides talked for hours and reached an agreement.

As for the North’s claim about the uranium enrichment plant, the institute said that the available information does not confirm the plant’s operation, but nothing contradicts the North’s statement the plant is operational.

Confirmation of the reactor’s restart comes a day after North Korea said that it “is ready to launch multiple satellites aboard long-range rockets to mark the ruling communist party’s anniversary next month”, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

“The South would end up damaging the emerging mood for stability and improvement in cross-border relations as the South intensifies its diplomacy to depend on foreign forces to realize its delusion for reunification”, the Rodong Sinmun, the daily of the North’s Workers’ party, said in a commentary titled “Seoul’s unification diplomacy that foments distrust and confrontation”.

However, experts say North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are unclear. North Korea booted out global inspectors in 2009, and independent assessments by outside experts since then have been spotty.

His comments came shortly after North Korea made a series of threats that raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Ri attended the conference previous year and argued that Pyongyang has no choice but to pursue nuclear programs as a deterrent against US hostility.

The USA government has repeatedly called on North Korea to commit to denuclearization as a condition of any future negotiations, but Kim’s regime has repeatedly dismissed such an idea, demanding to be recognized as a nuclear power. There is no question about it. Japan would follow the U.S. “In the meantime, the USA anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK that forced it to have access to the nuclear weapons has remained utterly unchanged and instead it has become all the more undisguised and vicious with the adaption of means openly seeking the downfall of the latter’s social system”.