Glyn Davies, the American representative for North Korea policy, spoke on Thursday after meeting with South Koreas nuclear envoy, Lim Sung-nam, at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.
The statement also explicitly ruled out any talks over denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which has been the objective of both on-again-off-again international talks with Pyongyang for two decades and an agreement the North signed with South Korea 21 years ago.
It is hard to know what North Korea meant by the references in its statement that its next nuclear test would be of a different nature. It could indicate that the country will attempt to show that it can manucture a warhead small enough to fit on a missile, though that technology of miniaturization is extremely difficult.
We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people, the statement said, using the abbreviation for the Norths official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
The North appears to be preparations for a possible nuclear test at the Punggye test site in northeastern North Korea, near the Chinese border. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters on Thursday that the North Koreans have the capability, frankly, to conduct these tests in a way that makes it very difficult to determine whether or not they are doing it.
South Koreans in Seoul watched TV news reports showing file footage of a North Korean military parade North Korea Issues Blunt New Threat to U satellite viewafter an announcement that North Korea would conduct another nuclear test.
The North Korean threat will now almost surely be inherited by Senator John Kerry, Mr. Obamas nominee to be secretary of state. Mr. Kerry had earlier been critical of the Bush administrations handling of the North, saying its focus on the Iraq war diverted attention from more dangerous threats.
There had been hopes that Mr. Kim who is reported to have made modest economic changes and is portrayed as more afble than his ther might be willing to compromise with the West for economic aid. Thursdays threat was the latest suggestion that he was more likely to follow the pattern that his ther, Kim Jong-il, established when he ran the country: a cycle of a rocket launching, United Nations condemnation and nuclear testing.
A version of this article appeared in print on January 25, 2013, on page of the with the headline: North Korea Threatens to Target U.S. and Conduct a Higher-Level Nuclear Test.
Its a major test for Kim Jong-un, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. Unlike the rocket launching in December, which the North has said was conducted because it was his thers dying wish, a nuclear test will be Kim Jong-uns decision, one for which he will be held responsible.
Still, the statement comes at a time when American officials were already expressing renewed concerns about the Norths intentions. Intelligence officials have concluded that the recent long-range rocket test was successful, and reached as r as the Philippines before propelling a washing-machine-size satellite into orbit. It later tumbled, but the launching suggested a capability to toss a warhead much rther than before.
WASHINGTON A blunt and explicit threat on Thursday from North Korea that its weapons programs would target the United States, and that it would proceed with a third and higher-level nuclear test, poses a stark challenge to the Obama administration at a time when it hoped to focus its major diplomatic effort on restraining Irans less-advanced nuclear program.
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A new nuclear test in defiance of the United Nations would be the first under the Norths new and untested leader, Kim Jong-un, and the clearest indicator yet that he is following his autocratic thers path, pushing ahead with a nuclear weapons program that analysts say is increasingly sophisticated.
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The statement from the North Korean National Defense Commission was a response to the United Nations Security Councils approval this week of a resolution condemning the Norths most successful rocket launching to date and tightening sanctions a resolution that China, the Norths biggest ally, voted to approve.
American intelligence officials have also become concerned that the latest rocket test indicated that the countrys new leader might have decided that confrontation with the West could prove a more successful strategy to retaining power than a new attempt at difficult economic reforms.
The White House responded to the North Korean declaration Thursday by declaring it needlessly provocative. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that further provocations would only increase Pyongyangs isolation, a variant of the line the White House has used every time the North has issued a threat, launched a missile or revealed a new nuclear cility.
American intelligence officials said recently that, at best, the Norths missiles could hit Hawaii, and that it would be at least three years, maybe more, before that range could be extended to the continental United States.
But deeper isolation does not appear to be the young Mr. Kims greatest fear. So r, China, which supplies the Norths energy and some of its food, has not cut off aid in response to North Korean actions even though its leaders have urged Mr. Kim and his ther to refrain from provocations. Chinese officials have made clear in meetings with their American counterparts that they fear instability in North Korea more than they worry about the country advancing its longstanding nuclear and missile capabilities.
The Norths threats were considerably more specific than past warnings and came just as American intelligence agencies expressed concern that the country may have made considerable progress in its nuclear and missile programs despite longstanding sanctions.
Assessing North Koreas real intentions is always difficult,The law online. and it may prove that the statement, issued by the countrys highest military body, was another outburst by an insecure, starving country seeking to shake down the West for more aid, a cycle President Obama had vowed to break. Pyongyangs public declarations often heat up at times when the United States is focusing its attention elsewhere.
If you look back over the past four years, a former administration official said recently, we havent moved the Chinese at all.
But it also repeated past wording that the nuclear program was meant as deterrence.
Because the tests are underground, activity that American spy satellites see at the test site is not a reliable predictor of when a test will take place. At times over the past decade North Korea has feigned preparations, but it has exploded a device only twice: an attempt in 2006 that was later judged a fizzle, and a more successful test a few months after Mr. Obama came to office four years ago. That test turned the Obama administration hawkish on North Korea and wary of pursuing any deep engagement with the country.
If approved as secretary, Free legal information he will have to deal with the question of whether the Obama administration, by focusing on Iran and refusing to reward the North for its periodic threats, tantrums and tests, has made a similar error. While there have been periodic efforts to restart talks with North Korea, they have iled; the most recent one fell apart about a year ago.
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The North stated clearly, rather than implying, that its nuclear program would now be aimed at the United States something suggested in the past, for instance, by propaganda posters showing a missile striking what looks like Capitol Hill.
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It could also mean that it plans its first test of a uranium weapon, created from a new uranium-enrichment program that it showed two years ago to a visiting American scientist. The Norths previous two tests used plutonium,Online Education. harvested from a now-closed nuclear reactor. Uranium enrichment gives the North another pathway to expand its arsenal; American intelligence officials have said they believe the North has enough plutonium for roughly 6 to 10 weapons.
