North Korea leader turns up nuclear heat

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said yesterday, fuelling speculation that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.

The meeting of top officials led by Kim underscores Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of UN Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.

Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test — or face “significant action”.

North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space programme.

It warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as US hostility. A rare statement was issued last Thursday by the powerful National Defence Commission.

North Korea cites a US military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons.