North Korea Threatens to 'weaponise' All of Its Plutonium

North Korea again ratcheted up the tension in its nuclear standoff with the world by declaring yesterday that it would "weaponise" all of its plutonium and threatening its opponents with military action.

The embattled secretive regime was responding aggressively to a series of sanctions imposed by the United Nations last week aimed at punishing Pyongyang's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

In a statement carried by its official news agency, North Korea said it would also embark on a uranium-enrichment programme and that abandoning its nuclear ambitions was now impossible. "It has become an absolutely impossible option for [North Korea] to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons," the country said.

The revelation of an active uranium programme flies in the face of previous claims by the country that it has no such technology. But it confirms long-held suspicions that the country was secretly enriching and storing the radioactive material. The statement certainly makes good on an earlier threat to respond to any new UN sanctions with a "super-hardline" response.

The move brought immediate condemnation from the US, which appealed for North Korea to return to an international discussion group as a way of defusing tensions on the Korean peninsula, which are at their highest in decades. "[North Korea] needs to cease provocative actions and rhetoric, and return unconditionally to the six-party process," a State Department spokesperson said.

But there seems little immediate prospect of that. In the current crisis, North Korea has responded to any actions to curb its nuclear ambitions by escalating tensions. Last week's imposition of a set of UN sanctions, surprisingly backed by North Korea's normal allies China and Russia, appears to have outraged Pyongyang. The sanctions were relatively mild and aimed at disrupting the supply of weapons technology to the country. But they stopped short of firm action and did not allow ships heading to North Korea to be stopped and searched by military means. They did not even limit the supply of food and non-military goods to the North. But it has quickly become clear that the sanctions have infuriated Pyongyang.

The latest statement not only reveals that the regime now has two sources of nuclear material for its bombs - plutonium and uranium - but it also suggests an apparent willingness to resort to war. North Korea said that any attempt at blockading the country would prompt it to use military force. "An attempted blockade of any kind by the US and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response," the North said. Pyongyang also called the UN security council an "ugly product of American-led international pressure".

It is possible that North Korea's hardline sabre-rattling shines a spotlight onto internal power struggles inside the hermit kingdom. Ailing leader Kim Jong-il, is thought to have suffered a stroke last summer and has appeared frail in public appearances. He recently appointed his son, Kim Jong-un, as a successor, but he is very young and may not have a firm power base. Instead, the strident recent actions by Pyongyang could reveal the actions of hardline generals exercising more power in government decisions.

There are now fears that North Korea is preparing a third nuclear bomb test and further missile launches, including perhaps a weapon that can theoretically reach US territory. There is no sign that such a test is imminent, but western spy satellites and South Korean intelligence agencies have reported numerous signs of suspicious activities.