G7 should ‘cool very hot’ North Korean nuclear threat, says Italy

Naples (Italy), May 22 (IANS/AKI) Leaders at the G7 summit in Italy this week should try and "cool" the "very hot" threat posed by North Korea's claim it successfully tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said on Monday.

"I hope that the G7 leaders will hold in-depth talks to try and cool what today seems like a very hot threat," Alfano said during a visit to Naples.

"This is a very delicate issue for the whole world," he said.

His remarks came after North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency said on Sunday the Pukguksong-2 ballistic weapon met all the required technical specifications was now ready to be deployed for military action.

North Korea fired the missile into waters off its east coast on Sunday, a week after it tested what it said was a new type of rocket capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead.

Earlier on Sunday, North Korea's state-run media had said it would continue to launch more "weapons capable of striking" the US.

Last Monday, the United Nations Security Council had demanded that Pyongyang conduct no further such tests.

North Korea is known to be developing both nuclear weapons - it has conducted five nuclear tests - and the missiles capable of delivering those weapons to their target. Both are in defiance of UN sanctions.

The G7 summit is being held in in Taormina on Sicily's eastern coast on Friday and Saturday.