North Korea to Weaponize Plutonium

They have threatened to do so in the past and now it appears they will. The complete meltdown of what little relationship North Korea had with the world continues, of course weaponizing plutonium is just one more insult to injury. In that case North Korea has threatened violence as a response, but that seems to be the norm with them.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea responded to new United Nations sanctions on Saturday by defiantly vowing to press forward with production of nuclear weapons and take “resolute military actions” against efforts to isolate it.

In a statement on the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, an unnamed spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying that his nation will continue its nuclear program to defend itself against what he called a hostile United States policy. He was quoted as saying his nation will “weaponize” its existing plutonium stockpiles and begin a new program to enrich uranium, another material that can be used to make atomic warheads.

The statement was released hours after the Security Council voted to punish the North for its May 25 nuclear test and ballistic missile tests with tough sanctions including an arms embargo and high-seas searches of North Korean vessels.“We’ll take firm military action if the United States and its allies try to isolate us,” the spokesman said, according to KCNA.According to KCNA, the spokesman also said that his nation will “weaponize all plutonium, and we’ve reprocessed more than one-third of our spent nuclear fuel rods.”

The statement was an apparent reference to spent fuel rods from the North’s Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear complex. Since the early 1990s, United Nations inspectors have tried to keep tabs on the rods, which can be reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.The United States has also warned in the past that the North may be trying to turn its abundant supplies of natural uranium into material for weapons.

Of course this doesn't address rumors about a Highly Enriched Uranium processing center. Stories the Obama admin tried to play down. But have no fear a toothless resolution calling on the interdiction of North Korean ship without the use of force is being pushed by the UN. Don't you feel better.

North Korea seemed Saturday to have interpreted the seizure resolution as a "blockade." But at the insistence of China and Russia, the North's traditional allies, the resolution does not authorize the use of military action to enforce any seizure that a North Korean vessel might resist, nor does it restrict shipments of food or other nonmilitary goods.

"An attempted blockade of any kind by the United States and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response," North Korea said.The bellicose language in Saturday's statement -- which describes the Security Council action as "another ugly product of American-led international pressure" -- is similar in tone to previous North Korean responses to U.N. sanctions.

But the North's announcement that it would process enriched uranium to make more weapons was an extraordinary public admission of active involvement in a program whose existence has been denied by Pyongyang since 2002, when it was first mentioned in a U.S. intelligence report.

For more on the North Korean program check here.