North Korea threatens new nuclear test after human rights criticism

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last updated 8 January 2015

After the U.N. criticized North Korea's record on human rights, the North responded with threats of a new nuclear test in retaliation.

North Korea described the U.N. resolution, passed on Tuesday, as "fraud," claiming the report was an effort for the U.S. to embarrass North Korea.

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The U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies noted that the reactor at Pyongyang's Yongbyon nuclear complex has been shut down for 10 weeks, fueling speculation that work on the nuclear reprocessing facility may have started. Shutting down the complex may have allowed North Korea to "remove a number of fuel rods from the reactor and to transfer them to the radiochemical laboratory, where spent fuel rods are reprocessed to extract weapons-grade plutonium," The Telegraph reports.

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