Pyongyang 'targets US'

The country had already criticised a unanimous security council resolution condemning its recent long-range missile launches, but it has now also pledged to pull out of six-party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets will be launched," said a statement from the National Defence Committee.

"A nuclear test of higher level will be carried out in the upcoming new phase of the anti-US struggle, targeting against the US, the sworn enemy of the Korean people."

The committee - headed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - repeated its assertion that the December launch condemned by the UN as banned missile activity was in fact a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space.