Already under international sanctions for nuclear and missile tests, North Korea doubled down Tuesday, saying it would conduct further such tests “soon.”
The official Korean Central News Agency said dictator Kim Jong-un “gave orders of conducting a test for estimating the heat stability of rocket warhead tip.”
Mr. Kim also declared that “a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads will be conducted in a short time,” according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The North Korean leader “instructed the relevant (military) section to make prearrangement for them to the last detail.”
The United Nations Security Council, with the necessary approval of Pyongyang’s ally China, passed a series of sanctions against North Korea over a January test of what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb and a February test of a long-range missile capable of delivering such a weapon.
For the past two weeks, as the U.S. and South Korea conducted joint military exercises, the North has responded with daily acts of belligerence, ranging from threats of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the U.S. homeland to firing several ballistic missiles into waters just off South Korea.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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