N Korea relaunching main N-complex

North Korea has announced that it is “readjusting and restarting” all facilities at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

According to the official KCNA agency on Tuesday, a uranium enrichment facility and five MW Yongbyon reactors, which were closed in 2007 as part of an international nuclear disarmament deal, are to be put into operation again.

The move is in line with a policy of “bolstering the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity” as well as solving “acute” electricity shortages, said a nuclear energy spokesman.

North Korea declared on Monday that the nation’s top priorities are a stronger economy and producing nuclear arms.

On the same day, the US officially reported that it has sent a guided-missile destroyer to the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula to ‘defend against a possible North Korean rocket launch.’

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a speech on Sunday, saying, “Our nuclear strength is a reliable war deterrent and a guarantee to protect our sovereignty.”

Kim also accused the US of seeking to drag North Korea into an arms race in an attempt to obstruct the country’s economic improvement.

Earlier on Saturday, Pyongyang declared that it is in a “state of war” with South Korea, warning that any provocation by Seoul and Washington will trigger an all-out nuclear war.

North Korea said on March 29 that its military should be prepared to attack “all US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the US mainland, Hawaii, and Guam” as well as South Korea.

The announcement came just days after South Korea and the US signed a new military pact on March 25 in response to what they called even low-level provocations by Pyongyang.

On March 11, Seoul and Washington launched a week-long annual joint military maneuver near the Korean Peninsula despite warnings from Pyongyang. The maneuver involved 10,000 South Korean soldiers and about 3,000 US troops.