World
North Korea has threatened to conduct a nuclear test in response to a United Nations move towards a probe into the country's human rights violations. The BBC reports:
Its foreign ministry on Thursday accused the United States of orchestrating a recent UN resolution calling for the investigation. North Korea previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Its threat comes as new satellite images emerge indicating fresh activity at a North Korean nuclear facility.
A UN human rights committee on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
Pyongyang said the resolution was based on "fabricated testimonies" from North Korean defectors and "slander against Pyongyang". The resolution's approval was a "grave political provocation" by the US and such "aggression..is leaving us unable to further refrain from staging a new nuclear test."
It added that its military deterrence "will be beefed up limitlessly" to guard against the US.
A US State Department spokesman said in response: "It would certainly be unfortunate to threaten with that kind of activity in response to the legitimate focus on North Korea's human rights situation by the international community."
North Korea has used similar rhetoric previously when there has been increased tension with other countries. The Guardian reports:
Analysts say it’s unlikely North Korea will follow through on its threats to conduct a nuclear test because that would invite further international condemnation and derail efforts to attract foreign investment and aid to revive its moribund economy.
China and Russia, which hold veto power on the security council, will not let the council refer North Korea’s rights situation to the criminal court, but North Korea also knows the two countries do not want another nuclear test by Pyongyang, said Lim Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University.
China and Russia voted against the non-binding resolution, which goes to the general assembly for a vote in the coming weeks. North Korea, however, often confounds outside analysts’ predictions and doesn’t always act according to a set pattern.
Two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010 were a surprise because they came amid relatively easing tensions with the US and South Korea. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said Wednesday the North may be restarting a plant that can reprocess nuclear fuel into weapons-grade plutonium for the first time in six years.
The finding is based on analysis of recent commercial satellite imagery at North Korea’s main nuclear facility.
