The North Korean Foreign Ministry said that the country “would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up its nuclear deterrence,” in the state-run Korean Central News Agency on March 30. The remarks, coming in response to the United Nations’ condemnation of the North’s recent missile tests, may refer to a possible test of a uranium-based nuclear device.

The UN Security Council on March 27 condemned North Korea’s test launch of two Rodong missileson its east coast on the morning of March 26. The test – North Korea’s longest-range missile test since its December 2012