N Korea threat to resume missile tests

The North's nuclear moves have led to protests in the South

North Korea has warned it could end its moratorium on ballistic missile tests.

We believe we cannot go along with the self-imposed missile moratorium any longer

Choe Jin-su, N Korean ambassador to China

The North Korean ambassador to China blamed the US for the move, saying Washington had invalidated all agreements between the two countries.

Earlier, state media reported that one million Pyongyang residents demonstrated in support of the government's decision to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which curbs the spread of nuclear arms.

Alarm over Pyongyang's nuclear plans has been growing since it announced last month that it was reopening a nuclear plant, which experts say can be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

A North Korean diplomat in Vienna said on Saturday that the Yongbyon plant would be operable in a few weeks.

Long-range missiles

If missile launches resume, they would be the first since 1998, when Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific.

CRISIS CHRONOLOGY

16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US says

14 Nov: Oil shipments to N Korea halted

22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon nuclear plant

26 Dec: UN says 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the plant

31 Dec: UN nuclear inspectors leave North Korea

6 Jan: IAEA demands inspectors be readmitted and secret weapons programme halted

7 Jan: US "willing to talk" to North Korea

10 Jan: N Korea pulls out of nuclear treaty

Pyongyang suggests it could resume ballistic missile tests

Timeline of tensions

A year later, North Korea declared a freeze on testing.

Ambassador Choe Jin-su said the moratorium had been meant as a gesture toward the US in the hope of normalising relations.

"Because all agreements have been nullified by the US side, we believe we cannot go along with the self-imposed missile moratorium any longer," he said.

The North Koreans are believed to have long-range missiles that can reach any part of South Korea and most of Japan.

They are also developing ballistic missiles that can reach Alaska and Hawaii, according to US officials.

Mr Choe also told the news conference that his country was willing to prove to Washington that it was not making nuclear weapons, but only if the US abandoned its "hostile policies".

Pyongyang has described Friday's decision to pull out from the NPT as a legitimate act of self-defence.

The international community has called on North Korea to reverse its withdrawal.

France and the US have said the matter should be referred to the UN Security Council.

The communist state has warned that any sanctions will be viewed as a declaration of war.

Weapons fears

Tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme have been escalating dramatically in the past few months.

North Korea's missiles can reach any part of the South

In October, Washington said that the North Koreans had admitted they were developing a nuclear programme, in contravention of a 1994 deal freezing all nuclear activity.

A month later, the US stopped oil shipments to North Korea which were part of the same deal.

In retaliation, North Korea unsealed the Yongbyon nuclear plant and began moving nuclear fuel rods there. It also expelled UN monitors.

Pyongyang says its nuclear activities are confined to "peaceful purposes" such as the production of electricity.

But experts say the Yongbyon plant - which the North Koreans unsealed last month - can only generate a negligible amount of electricity.

They say Pyongyang could be a year or less away from the mass production of nuclear weapons material.