North Korea Ups Nuclear Stakes?

Disturbing speculation today by a BBC correspondent that the Norks may be trying to develop a fusion bomb.

The North Korean statement, carried by official news agency KCNA, did not give any details of how the communist country could bolster its nuclear capability.

"The recent disturbing development on the Korean peninsula underscores the need for (North Korea) to bolster its nuclear deterrent in a newly developed way to cope with the US persistent hostile policy toward (the North) and military threat toward it," it quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests. It is thought to have both plutonium and uranium-based weapons programmes.

The BBC's John Sudworth, in Seoul, says the comments could also be meant as a hint that it is trying to build a hydrogen bomb, a massively more powerful weapon than the type it is already known to possess.

North Korea announced in May that it had successfully conducted a nuclear fusion reaction, the type used in a hydrogen bomb.

But that kind of breakthrough would require a major technological leap and many experts doubt whether North Korea has the facilities or the resources, our correspondent says.

UPDATE (added by Brant)
The Norks are now also accusing the US and South Korea of bringing weapons into Panmunjon, among other transgressions.

By: Shelldrake