By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea threatened to conduct a nuclear test and test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile Wednesday in retaliation for the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) condemnation against its launch of a long-range rocket in early April.
``The U.N. Security Council should promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative 'resolutions' and decisions adopted against the DPRK,'' North Korea's foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the North's official name.
Pyongyang will also start building a nuclear reactor and develop technology to produce nuclear fuel, the statement said.
North Korea fired what it claimed ``communications satellite,'' despite repeated calls to stop from the international community, which led the Security Council unanimously to adopt a statement on April 11.
It criticized the rocket launch and sought to impose economic sanctions and an arms embargo, claiming the communist state violated the UNSC Resolution 1718 which was adopted to penalize the regime.
In addition, the international organization agreed on the blacklist of three North Korean organizations last Saturday in a bid to impose sanctions for their involvement in Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The three are the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., an arms dealer and exporter of ballistic missile material; Tanchon Commercial Bank, which finances sales of conventional arms and ballistic missile material; and the Korea Ryonbong General Corp., a conglomerate specializing in acquisition for North Korea's defense industries.
As retaliatory measures, the North vowed to resume nuclear activities and ousted International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors from its nuclear facility in Yongbyon.
It also announced it would boycott the six-party denuclearization talks involving China, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Japan.
The prickly state conducted the first nuclear test in October 2006, which put the international community as well as neighboring countries on alert. The UNSC adopted the resolution 1718 after the experiment.
According to a report Wednesday, North Korea has begun to reprocess spent fuel rods as preliminary preparation to resume nuclear activities.
Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper said that the Japanese government, which confirmed the development, speculated that the secretive state will likely conduct a nuclear experiment in three months.