Nuclear plant fired up ahead of launch

North Korea says its main nuclear complex is operating again and it is working to improve the ‘‘quality and quantity’’ of weapons which it could use against the United States at ‘‘any time’’.

The comments by North Korea’s official news agency come after its space agency said it was readying a new satellite for launch, indicating it may fire an upgraded long-range ballistic missile around the 70th anniversary of its ruling party on October 10.

Any such launch would violate international sanctions, although North Korea insists it would be part of a space programme for peaceful purposes.

The US, which has 28,000 military personnel in South Korea, called on North Korea to ‘‘refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions’’.

‘‘It should focus instead on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,’’ White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, referring to past North Korean pledges to denuclearise.

US diplomat for East Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, said ‘‘it would be a mistake for North Korea to . . . embark on the kind of threatening behaviour and provocation that led to international sanctions in the first place’’.

China, North Korea’s main ally, said it opposed nuclear weapons development on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea vowed in 2013 to restart all its nuclear facilities, including the main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon shuttered.

Its announcement is the first acknowledgement since then that the plant, which has been the source of fissile material used in the country’s atomic weapons programme, is operational.

‘‘All the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, including the uranium enrichment plant and 5MW graphite-moderated reactor, were rearranged, changed or readjusted and they started normal operation,’’ North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said, citing the director of its atomic agency.

‘‘If the US and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards the DPRK and behave mischievously, the DPRK is fully ready to cope with them with nuclear weapons any time.’’

DPRK is an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The country is believed to be working towards developing an intercontinental ballistic missile mounted with an atomic warhead that could hit US mainland targets.

Experts at 38 North, a website run by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said satellite images of North Korea’s main launch site showed no sign of preparations for an October launch.

‘‘There remains little but possibly sufficient time for the North to prepare for a launch.’’

A 38 North report last week said recent satellite imagery of the Yongbyon complex indicated new activity that could be part of work to produce new nuclear material that would be a step toward adding to its nuclear stockpile.

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