North Korea in plutonium threat

North Korea said it will "weaponise" its plutonium stocks amid threats to take military action over United Nations sanctions, state media said.

Pyongyang has for the first time confirmed it is seeking to enrich uranium in efforts to develop nuclear weapons, it said.

North Korea would view any US-led attempts to "blockade" it as an "act of war", the Associated Press (AP) said.

It follows a toughening of UN sanctions against the communist state.

The warning from North Korea's foreign ministry was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday.

'Unacceptable behaviour'

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on communist North Korea, after its nuclear test on 25 May.

The North also tested a rocket thought to be capable of carrying a warhead, though Pyongyang said it was designed to carry a satellite.

The UN sanctions include the inspection of North Korean ships, a wider ban on arms sales and other financial measures.

The US deputy ambassador at the UN, Rosemary DiCarlo, said the new vote was a strong and united response to North Korea's "unacceptable behaviour".

The North Korean foreign ministry statement said: "Firstly, all plutonium to be extracted will be weaponised. One third of used fuel rods have so far been reprocessed.

"Secondly, we will start uranium enrichment," the statement added.

The nuclear fuel cycle


The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul said the admission that Pyongyang was trying to enrich uranium was worrying, as the processing could take place in a smaller reactor and was easier to hide.

Korea analyst Aidan Foster Carter told the BBC Pyongyang's process was "out of control" and that nothing seemed able to persuade North Korea to stop its nuclear ambitions - neither sanctions nor financial incentives.

He said the nuclear stand-off may be part of internal ructions as Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-il decides which of his three sons will take over from him.

Handful of weapons

North Korea is thought to possess enough reprocessed plutonium for between six and eight nuclear weapons.

However, analysts say Pyongyang has not yet mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a missile.

Pyongyang has stated its nuclear weapons programme is purely a defensive measure to protect it against a US attack.

Washington has said it does not intend to attack the North, and is concerned Pyongyang's nuclear knowledge could be passed to other states

South Africacns' doctors march for better pay

Hundreds of doctors in South Africa have taken part in marches to demand a 50% pay rise and more government investment in hospitals.

It comes after several weeks of strikes and pickets by medical professionals.

Dressed in white gowns and black armbands, some protesters in Pretoria held up placards reading "Bus drivers earn more than doctors".

Earlier this week, South Africa's economy went into recession for the first time since 1992.

Correspondents say Jacob Zuma, who was inaugurated as president earlier this month, faces pressure from trade unions to live up to his promises to help poor workers.

'Doctor exodus'

The South African Medical Association, which organised the marches in the capital, Pretoria, the port city of Durban and Bisho in the Eastern Cape, says doctors are overworked and underpaid, sometimes working up to 36 hours without a break.

"We are marching to better conditions in the public sector, for you not to be in long queues," Pretoria march co-ordinator Lizzy Kwenda told onlookers, the South African Press Association reports.

She said the doctors on the march - estimated at about 500 in Pretoria - were not neglecting patients.

The black armbands, she said, symbolised the "death" of the health system.

"We cannot take it anymore," she said. "The health system has collapsed."

The doctors in Pretoria marched to the department of health, where they handed over a list of complaints.

"I understand your pain, I am a doctor, and once worked in a hospital; I experience your situation," Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said, adding their concerns were being looked into.

"Give us the time frame, [a] deadline!" the doctors shouted back, Sapa reports.

Earlier, Mpho Mohlala, deputy chairwoman of the United Doctors Forum, warned that patients were not getting basic care.

"We've got an exodus of doctors leaving the country, going to work somewhere overseas, and we've got lots and lots of doctors moving out of the public sector to the private sector," she told the AFP news agency.