N Korea threatens ‘stronger’ measures than nuclear test

SEOUL — North Korea’s state media said yesterday that its authoritarian regime may do something “stronger than a nuclear test” to respond to what it called signs that it is about to be attacked by the United States.
North Korea routinely warns its people that the US and South Korea are on the verge of invading it.

But yesterday’s statement adds to a series of criticisms and warnings directed at the US that have escalated steadily over the past two weeks.

The statements, which began soon after the United Nations Security Council imposed new penalties on Jan 22 on North Korea for violating a missile ban by launching a rocket in December, have been taken by outsiders as confirmation of widely held expectations that Pyongyang will soon test a nuclear explosive for the third time.
North Korea detonated nuclear explosives after being penalised for rocket launches in 2006 and 2009.
Yesterday’s statement, attributed as a commentary by the Korean Central News Agency, is notable chiefly because it went beyond the previous criticism of sanctions to allege that the US is planning a nuclear attack with the help of South Korea.
“The DPRK has drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces’ nuclear war moves that have become ever more undisguised,” the statement said.
“This is the demand of the people. There is no other option for the DPRK but to fight it out.”
DPRK is the abbreviation for the country’s full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, in an interview published by a Seoul newspaper yesterday, suggested that North Korea may try to detonate two or more explosives at the same time.
Analysts suspect that North Korea may attempt to detonate an explosive made from highly enriched uranium for the first time after its previous plutonium bomb tests. 
 .todayonline.com
5/2/13
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