World News for Students of English

17-09-2015 07:00

North Korea has said it is improving its nuclear weapons “in quality and quantity”. The country has said its main nuclear complex Yongbyon is fully operational, and the country is ready to face US hostility with nuclear weapons “at any time”.

This comes after a declaration by the North in 2013 vowing to restart all nuclear facilities.

This included Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal. The reactor has been the source of plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. I’is believed that if re-started, the reactor could potentially make one bomb’s worth of plutonium per year.

The director of North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute said, “If the US and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards North Korea, and behave mischievously, they are fully ready to cope with them.”

Difficult words: hostility (hostile or unfriendly action), declaration (the act of declaring something – saying something officially), vow (to promise to do something), disarmament (the reduction of weapons), aid (help), persistently (if you do something persistently, you do it again and again over time), reckless (dangerous) mischievously (if you do something mischievously, you like doing it because it is bad for somebody else), cope (to deal).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com