US urges NKorea to avoid 'irresponsible provocations' over nuclear program
Earnest issued the statement after unpredictable North Korea said it had restarted a nuclear reactor
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States urged North Korea Tuesday to refrain from "irresponsible provocations that serve only to aggravate regional tensions."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest issued the statement after the unpredictable communist state said it had restarted a nuclear reactor used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
The announcement that the Yongbyon nuclear complex was operational again came hard on the heels of suggestions by the head of the country s space agency that a satellite rocket launch could come next month.
"If the US and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy... (North Korea) is fully ready to cope with them with nuclear weapons any time," the director of North Korea s Atomic Energy Institute told the official KCNA news agency.
Analysts saw the statements as aimed at raising tensions in order to place North Korea firmly on the agenda of an expected US-China summit later this month.
