N. Korea threatens nuclear test, more rocket launches in wake of tightened sanctions

If the country conducts another nuclear test, it would lend new clues about its weapons material. North Korea’s first two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, used plutonium, and the country — though it has idled its plutonium program — still has about 24 to 48 kilograms on hand, enough for four to eight bombs, according to Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The next test could use leftovers from that stash, or it could use a new material: highly enriched uranium. In 2010, North Korean officials unveiled a 2,000-centrifuge uranium enrichment plant to a small team of foreign visitors that included Hecker. The North Koreans said their new program was for peaceful purposes only; that is, they planned to produce low-enriched, not high-enriched (or weapons-grade), uranium.

Gallery

Inside North Korea: A rare visual tour inside the reclusive and secretive country.

Latest stories from Foreign

Obama, in Berlin, calls for U.S., Russia to cut nuclear warheads

Scott Wilson

His speech from the Brandenburg Gate recalls Cold War history, focuses on current challenges.

Karzai casts doubts on talks with U.S., Taliban; 4 U.S. troops killed

Karen DeYoung, Tim Craig and Ernesto Londoño

A deadly Taliban attack at Bagram air base underscores the complexity of trying to negotiate a peace deal.

Law cracks down on editor of Russian heartland website

Will Englund

She lost her room to maneuver and now faces stiff prison term; Urals area losing independent voice.

Obama win spurs congratulations, reflection around globe

Michael Birnbaum

Many seemed to suggest a second-term president would be free from constraints that bedevil a first-termer.

Karzai objects to peace talks with Taliban in Doha after Kabul, Bagram attacks

Max Ehrenfreund

The Afghan president objected to a flag and banner the Taliban displayed at an event in Doha.

Many intelligence experts, though, speculate that North Korea is doing otherwise and has additional, clandestine uranium facilities throughout the country. A report last year from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, acknowledging the many unknowns, said the North could have enough weapons-grade uranium for up to 11 nuclear weapons.

North Korea has not conducted a nuclear test under supreme leader Kim Jong Eun, who inherited power when his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December 2011. In state propaganda, the younger Kim is depicted as a smiling man of the people, but in practice, he has doubled down on the strange brand of family-run brinkmanship — all while maintaining the surveillance networks and the labor camps in which about 200,000 North Koreans are imprisoned.

“Kim Jong Eun seems to have concluded it is advantageous to be armed with nuclear weapons” to show off national strength, said Kim Heung-kyu, a professor of politics and diplomacy at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul.

After North Korea’s statement Thursday, China urged calm from all involved parties, a familiar talking point from Pyongyang’s chief economic partner. Another nuclear test would present a particular challenge for new Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his lieutenants, who are torn between supporting a key ally and maintaining international credibility.

In the latest Security Council deliberations, China agreed to support a resolution tightening sanctions against the North. Resolution 2087 also condemned the North’s Dec. 12 rocket launch and reasserted that the North not proceed with further launches or nuclear tests. The latest sanctions also take aim at key figures and trading corporations involved in North Korea’s space program, freezing assets and attempting to stop the trade of weapons technology.

Resolution 2087 also promises “significant action in the event of a further [North Korean] launch or nuclear test.”

Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Peking University in Beijing, said China is likely to support another round of sanctions if the North conducts a third nuclear test.

“China has no option but to support the U.N.,” Zhu said. “Under such a situation, Kim Jong Eun should make serious considerations about the consequences. Anther nuclear test by North Korea could heighten the unrest in Northeast Asia.”

Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung in Washington, Yoonjung Seo in Seoul and Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.