U.N. chief says North Korea crisis has gone too far

                
North Korea will restart all nuclear facilities including its shuttered Yongbyon nuclear reactor, its official KCNA news servce said on Tuesday.              

It will rebuild and restart nuclear facilities including its mothballed uranium enrichment facility and the 5 MW Yongbyon reactor which it closed in 2007, KCNA quoted a spokesman at North Korea's atomic energy agency as saying.              

It said the nuclear facilities would be used for both electricity and military uses.           

North Korean nuclear weapons act as a deterrent to potential aggressors and as a foundation for its prosperity, the country's leader said in a speech delivered on Sunday and published in full by the country's KCNA news agency on Tuesday.                        

"Our nuclear strength is a reliable war deterrent and a guarantee to protect our sovereignty," Kim Jong-un said in a speech delivered to the central committee meeting of the ruling Workers Party of Korea.                          

The speech appeared to emphasize a shift to economic development and accused the United States of seeking to drag North Korea into an arms race in a bid to create obstacles to economic improvement.                       

Positions:

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that a crisis over North Korea had gone too far.            
 
As well, China regretted the step undertaken by North Korea to restart its Yongbyon nuclear reactor which it closed in 2007, and called for restraint in light of escalating tension. 


REUTER/LBCI