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North Korea Makes Big Announcement No One Wanted To Hear- Then Threatens USA In Huge Way
In what has been a pattern for many years, North Korea is making new threats of nuclear retaliation against its neighbors and the United States.
The rogue regime is backing up its threats by announcing it renewed production of nuclear material at its top secret Yongbyon complex, which had been shut down since 2007, according to the BBC.
The director of North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute said his country was ready to counter any U.S. military aggression with “nuclear weapons any time.”
He highlighted that his nation’s scientists “made innovations day by day” to “guarantee the reliability of the nuclear deterrent… as required by the prevailing situation.”
He added: “In the meantime, the U.S. anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK [North Korea] that forced it to have access to the nuclear weapons has remained utterly unchanged and instead it has become all the more undisguised and vicious with the adoption of means openly seeking the downfall of the latter’s social system.”
It is unclear exactly what U.S. policy to which the North Korean official is referring.
CNN reports that North Korea is also planning a rocket launch next month to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the communist regime. These launches have been banned by the U.N. Security Council, but North Korea remains defiant.
In 2012, the rogue regime reportedly successfully launched a satellite into space after multiple failed attempts.
“The UN said [the launch] was a banned test of ballistic missile technology and imposed sanctions. Experts say that [weaponized] ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology,” the Daily Mail reports.
“Space development for peaceful purposes is a sovereign state’s legitimate right … and the people of (North Korea) are fully determined to exercise this right no matter what others may say about it,” the director of its Atomic Energy Institute told the Korean Central News Agency. The world will “clearly see a series of satellites soaring into the sky at times and locations determined” by the Workers’ Party.
North and South Korea have remained in a technical state of war since an armistice, not a peace treaty, was signed in 1953. The United States has maintained a troop presence in South Korea since that time. The current U.S. strength is 28,500 military personnel, down approximately 10,000 in numbers from a decade ago.
The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, told CNN that Washington is working with South Korea “to ensure that other allies in the region as well as the U.S. homeland are protected from threats posed by North Korea.”
“We’ve moved, over time, a good deal of missile defense capability to the region,” Lippert said before North Korea issued the statement about its nuclear program. “Ground-based interceptors to Alaska, surface combatants to the Western Pacific, a THAAD battery [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] on Guam, another radar in Japan in order to be ready and vigilant for anything the North Koreans may or may not do.”
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, believes North Korea likely has between 10 to 15 nuclear weapons now and could have anywhere from 20 to 100 by 2020.
Intelligence agencies believe North Korea is developing the technology to miniaturize its weapons, so they can be mounted on ballistic missiles.
The Wall Street Journal reports: “There’s no hard evidence to show North Korea can make a nuclear device small enough to mount on a long-range missile, but U.S. military officials believe it probably has the ability. Another major technical challenge would be to deliver the bomb to its target successfully using a long-range missile. Experts are generally skeptical that North Korea has solved this problem.”
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/north-korea-makes-big-announcement-no-one-wanted-to-hear-then-threatens-u-s-in-huge-way/
