SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korean President Park Geun-hye condemned North Korea’s threat to test a nuclear warhead on Tuesday (March 15), saying the North will lead itself to self-destruction unless it changes.
“North Korea will lead itself to self-destruction if it does not change and continues to make excessive provocations and confrontation with the international community,” said Park at a cabinet meeting in Seoul.
“I think North Korea’s threat shows that it is experiencing strong sense of crisis, due to our cooperation with the international society over the sanctions against it,” she added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and a test launch of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
Such tests would be in defiant violation of United Nations sanctions that were recently strengthened with the backing of China, North Korea’s chief ally.
Kim made the comments as he supervised a successful simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile that measured the “thermodynamic structural stability of newly developed heat-resisting materials”, KCNA said.
South Korea’s defence ministry said there were no indications of activities at the North’s nuclear test site or its long-range rocket station, but that North Korea continues to maintain readiness to conduct nuclear tests.
The North’s report comes amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, as South Korean and U.S. troops stage annual military exercises that Seoul has described as the largest ever.