North Korea readies missile, makes new threat

By Jonathan Thatcher

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday that if the international community punishes it for next month's planned missile launch it will restart a nuclear plant that makes weapons grade plutonium.

The secretive state this week put a long-range missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for past weapons tests.

The planned launch, seen by some countries as a disguised military exercise, is the first big test for U.S. President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal have long plagued ties with Washington.

North Korea warned that any action by the U.N. Security Council to punish it would be a "hostile act."

"... All the processes for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula ... will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken, "the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea has frozen its aging nuclear reactor and started to take apart its Yongbyon atomic plant under a deal signed by regional powers in 2005 that called for economic aid and better diplomatic standing for the isolated North in return. Despite the agreement, the North carried out a nuclear test in 2006.

The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo quoted a diplomatic source as saying the North could fire its Taepodong-2 missile, which has the range to hit U.S. territory, by the weekend.

This is earlier than the April 4-8 timeframe Pyongyang announced for what it says is the launch of a satellite.