North Korea vowed today to restart a nuclear reactor which can make one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year, escalating tensions already raised by near daily warlike threats against the United States and South Korea.

IN secret and with remarkable speed, North Korea has built a new, highly sophisticated facility to enrich uranium, according to an American nuclear scientist, raising fears that the North is ramping up its atomic programme despite international pressure.

North Korea has secretly and quickly built a new facility to enrich uranium, according to a US nuclear scientist.