North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered an upcoming nuclear warhead test and multiple ballistic missile launches, escalating Pyongyang’s face-off with the international community just days after being slapped with tough United Nations (UN) sanctions.
The order came after Kim monitored what was described as the successful simulated test of the warhead re-entry technology required for a long-range nuclear strike on the US mainland, the North’s official KCNA news agency said Tuesday.
Military tensions have been soaring on the divided Korean peninsula since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on Jan 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The UN Security Council responded earlier this month by imposing its toughest sanctions on North Korea to date.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
In order to boost the reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent still further, Kim said a nuclear warhead explosion test and firings of “several kinds” of ballistic rockets would be carried out “in a short time”.
“He instructed the relevant section to make pre-arrangement for them to the last detail,” KCNA said.
The order came days after state media released photos of Kim posing with what was claimed to be a miniaturised nuclear warhead capable of fitting on a ballistic missile.
Meeting with her cabinet ministers on Tuesday, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said North Korea’s endless threats reflected a “sense of crisis” in Pyongyang at its increasing diplomatic and economic isolation.
“If North Korea continues its provocations and confrontation with the international community and does not walk the path of change, it will walk the path of self-destruction,” Park said.
