North Korea to test nuclear warhead | The Register

North Korea to test nuclear warhead | The Register: "North Korea to test nuclear warhead
Radioactive sabre-rattling

Published Tuesday 3rd October 2006 10:54 GMT

North Korea has announced it will test one of its nuclear warheads, the BBC reports. North Korea's foreign ministry declared: '[North Korea] will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed.'

It added provocatively: 'The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean Peninsula.'

The ministry said North Korea 'can no longer remain an on-looker to the developments' - a reference to 'vicious' US sanctions which have caused a situation where 'the US moves to isolate and stifle' the country.

The Pyongyang regime is under considerable US-led pressure to cease and desist its nuclear weapons programme. In 1994, it signed an agreement to 'freeze all nuclear-related activities', but in December 2002 restarted its Yongbyon reactor and booted two UN nuclear monitors out of the country.

A fully-operational Yongbyon reactor could, the BBC notes, 'produce enough plutonium to build approximately one weapon per year'.
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