News

The U.N. Security Council has imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea, punishing the country for its second nuclear test.

Pyongyang responded to the resolution Saturday by vowing to "weaponize" all its plutonium and will consider any blockade "an act of war".

The Security Council agreed Friday to expand an arms embargo and authorize ship searches on the high seas, with the goal of derailing the isolatedm nation''s nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea responded with a defiant statement and its Foreign Ministry also acknowledged for the first time that the country has a uranium enrichment program, and insisted it will never abandon its nuclear ambitions. Uranium and plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs.

The statement said "the whole amount of the newly extracted plutonium (in the country) will be weaponized".

In a sign of growing global anger at North Korea''s pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of the council, the North''s closest allies Russia and China joined Western powers and nations from every region in unanimously approving the sanctions resolution.

The resolution seeks to deprive North Korea of financing and material for its weapons program and bans the country''s lucrative arms exports, especially missiles. It does not ban normal trade, but does call on international financial institutions not to provide the North with grants, aid or loans except for humanitarian, development and denuclearization programs.

The resolution condemns ``in the strongest terms'''' the North''s May 25
nuclear test ``in violation and flagrant disregard'''' of the 2006 sanctions resolution.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said the new resolution provided "a strong and united international response'''' to North Korea''s test in defiance of a ban imposed after its first underground atomic blast in October 2006 by imposing "unprecedented" measures.

"The message of this resolution is clear: North Korea''s behavior is
unacceptable to the international community and the international community is determined to respond", DiCarlo said. "North Korea should return without conditions to a process of peaceful dialogue".

China''s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Yesui said the nuclear test had affected regional peace and security. He strongly urged Pyongyang to promote the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and return quickly to Beijing-hosted six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea''s nuclear program.

He said the resolution demonstrates the international community''s "firm opposition''" to the atomic blast, "but also sends a positive signal'''' by showing the council''s determination to resolve the issue "peacefully through dialogue and negotiations".

The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a flag country refuses an inspection at sea and refuses to direct the vessel to a port for inspection, a report must be made to the Security Council which could take action against the country, including sanctions.

Despite the U.N. sanctions, North Korea said it was "an absolutely impossible option" for it to abandon its nuclear programs, which it called a "self defensive measure'''' against a hostile U.S. policy and its nuclear threat against the North.

"An attempted blockade of any kind by the U.S. and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response,'''' it said without elaborating.