SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday vowed to retaliate if punitive U.N. sanctions are imposed for its latest nuclear test, and U.S. officials said there are new signs Pyongyang might be planning long-range missile launches.
With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch — the sixth this week.
Perhaps more significantly, officials in Washington said there are indications of increased activity at a site used to fire long-range missiles.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because methods of gathering data on North Korea are sensitive.
The officials also said an initial U.S. air sampling from near the underground test site was inconclusive. They said the analysis doesn’t prove the North successfully completed an atomic reaction, and at least one more test is coming.
North Korea remained strident. “There is a limit to our patience,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea said it conducted the nuclear test in self-defense. It has asserted the U.S. is planning a pre-emptive strike to oust leader Kim Jong Il and warned it would not accept sanctions or other punitive measures discussed by the U.N. Security Council.
The draft of a U.N. resolution being negotiated in response to the North’s second nuclear test calls on all countries to immediately enforce sanctions imposed after the North’s first test in 2006, including a partial arms embargo and ship searches for illegal weapons or material.
