North Korea 'boosting nuclear arsenal'

North Korea says it has taken steps that could allow it to obtain more plutonium for atomic bombs and that it will bolster its arsenal, the country’s latest provocation amid deadlocked talks over its nuclear programme.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country had removed 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 50 miles north of Pyongyang.