North Korea orders ‘important state measures’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country’s top security officials to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures.”

Kim’s order for firm action came on Sunday, while state media reported that the North Korean leader had “advanced specific tasks to the officials concerned”.

The move came a day after Pyongyang reiterated that it would carry out a high-level nuclear test in defiance of fresh UN sanctions against its rocket launch in December 2012.

“A nuclear test is the demand of the people,” Rodong Sinmun, the official daily newspaper of the ruling communist party, said on Saturday.

The daily further said that the demand of the people is that “we must do something even greater than a nuclear test. The United Nations Security Council has left us with no other options. We have no other ways but to push forward to the final showdown.”

On Friday, the East Asian nation said the recent UN sanctions amounted to a “declaration of war,” and threatened South Korea with “physical countermeasures” if it participates in the sanctions.

“As long as the South Korean puppet traitors’ regime continues with its anti-DPRK (North Korea) hostile policy, we will never sit down with them.”

Also on Thursday, Pyongyang announced that it would launch more long-range rockets and carry out a high-level nuclear test aimed at its “arch-enemy the United States.”

On January 22, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea for launching a long-range rocket on December 12, 2012.

Pyongyang announced it had launched a long-range rocket from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, located in Cholsan County of North Pyongan Province, and successfully placed a satellite into orbit.

This came while Washington and its allies said the North Korean launch had been a cover for testing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The rocket launch also drew widespread criticism from the European Union and the UN.