North Korea has pledged to begin work “weaponising” plutonium to create another nuclear bomb as it delivered a furious response to a UN resolution ordering a fresh round of sanctions against the rogue Stalinist state.
The regime of the ailing dictator Kim Jong-il said it was now in the “early phase of all-out confrontation with the US” as it sought to raise tensions on the Korean Peninsular to dangerous new levels.
On Friday the Security Council ordered an almost-total arms embargo and a raft of strict financial sanctions against the North in punishment for its testing of a second nuclear device last month.
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In a bellicose statement, Pyongyang described the sanctions as the “vile product” of US policy in the region, adding that it would also begin work enriching uranium as it sought to build up stocks of fissile material for its nuclear weapons programme.
The North is thought to have approximately 8,000 spent plutonium fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could yield 6-8kg of high-grade plutonium, or enough to make at least one more nuclear bomb.
The sanctions have also authorised UN member-states to stop and search North Korean vessels on the high seas if they suspect they are carrying banned nuclear or missile components, a measure that has drawn particular ire from Pyongyang.
