N Korea threatens to conduct nuclear tests

NORTH KOREA threatened to conduct nuclear and missile tests unless the UN apologises for criticising its April 5 rocket launch, dramatically raising its stake in the worsening standoff over its atomic programmes.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said in a statement the country “will be compelled to take additional self-defensive measures” unless the UN Security Council apologises immediately. “The measures will include nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

The North’s ministry also said the country would build a light-water nuclear reactor and start developing technologies to produce nuclear fuel, a threat that experts said indicated the country would start enriching uranium which can be used in the production of a nuclear bomb.