PYONGYANG - North Korea has warned of retaliation after the US scrapped food aid over its rocket launch, raising fears of a new nuclear test, as China reportedly suspended a refugee deal with its wayward ally.In a defiant statement late Tuesday, the nuclear-armed North broke off a bilateral agreement to halt testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles after Washington suspended much-needed food aid.
"We have thus become able to take necessary retaliatory measures, free from the agreement. The US will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences," its foreign ministry said.
- South Korean analysts said they expect the North to follow up by staging a third nuclear weapons test, or launching another long-range missile.
- The North also rejected condemnation by the United Nations Security Council, including its ally China, of the failed launch last Friday.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said today that China has suspended the refugee repatriation deal because it was not consulted about the launch, seen by the US and its allies as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.The paper quoted two Chinese officials as saying the longstanding policy of swiftly returning North Koreans as economic migrants - despite the punishment they face back home - had been put on hold.
- "North Korea failed to disclose specific plans of the missile launch to the Chinese side," the paper quoted one unidentified official as saying.
- The suspension reflects Beijing's displeasure with its neighbour which "did not show the necessary attention to its friend China," the official said.
- Pyongyang insists its botched satellite launch was not a missile test and did not breach a February deal with Washington, under which it vowed to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid.
- But the US called off plans to start shipping 265,000 tons (240,000 tonnes) of food, saying the North could no longer be trusted.
- On Monday, a Security Council presidential statement "strongly condemned" the launch. It ordered a tightening of existing sanctions and warned of new action if the isolated state stages another nuclear or long-range missile test.
Pyongyang said Washington had imposed a "brigandish demand" on the council and that every country has the right to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.The North had planned its launch as a centerpiece of mass celebrations for the centenary of the birth of founding president Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Eun.
At a major military parade Sunday featuring goose-stepping troops and weaponry, it wheeled out an apparently new long-range missile.
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