North Korea vowed Thursday to enlarge its atomic arsenal and warned of a «fire shower of nuclear retaliation» in the event of a U.S. attack, as the regime marked the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War, AP reported. The anniversary came as the U.S. Navy followed a North Korean ship suspected of carrying weapons in violation of a U.N. resolution punishing Pyongyang's May 25 nuclear test, and as anticipation mounted that the North might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days. President Barack Obama extended U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea for another year Wednesday, saying the North's possession of «weapons-usable fissile material» and its proliferation risk «continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat» to the United States, according to the White House Web site. According to the 2008 document outlining the restrictions, «all property and interests in property of North Korea or a North Korean national ... were blocked.» The U.S. measures are on top of U.N. sanctions that bar member states from buying weapons from or selling them to North Korea. They also ban the sale of luxury goods to the isolated country and prohibit the provision of weapons-related technical training and financial transactions.
