(Newswire.net — September 16, 2015) — The Western Countries haven’t ever looked at North Korea as a strong military force, let alone a nuclear power. Yet, North Korea threatens with its nuclear weapons, and its nuclear arsenal may be bigger than Westerners thought.
The North Korean authorities have announced they are ready to deal with US hostility “with nuclear weapons at any time” and are working to improve the country’s nuclear weapons “in quality and quantity,” Reuters reported, citing local media.
According to the director of the North’s Atomic Energy Institute, North Korea is working to improve its nuclear weapons “in quality and quantity,” the state KCNA news agency reported.
At the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, North Korea’s major nuclear facility located some 56 miles from capital Pyongyang, nuclear scientists have started a nuclear reactor, according to authorities.
“All the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, including the uranium enrichment plant and five megawatt reactor were rearranged, changed or readjusted and they started normal operation,” the director of the Atomic Energy Institute told the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
Tensions have recently escalated on the Korean peninsula after South and North exchanged fire in August, over the South’s propaganda loud speakers being installed at the border. Seoul “fired” from loudspeakers a salve of messages North Koreans found insultive, blaming them for setting land mines that claimed the lives of two South Korean soldiers.
After Seoul refused to remove loudspeakers, Pyongyang send a few gun-shells across the border, so Seoul replied with their own gunfire. Pyongyang then declared a near war condition, but peace talks resulted in lowering the tensions on both sides.
A month later, Pyongyang issued nuclear threats to Washington, saying it would respond accordingly if the America didn’t halt its military exercises with South Korea.
The North added it was ready to use its latest weapons, which are “unknown to the world.”