(PTI): North Korea has threatened to conduct nuclear tests and to launch ballistic missiles unless the UN apologizes for condemning its recent rocket launch.

“Unless the UN Security Council offers an apology immediately, we will be forced to take additional self-defense measures to protect the highest interests of our republic,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday in a statement cited by the official North Korean news agency.

The UN Security Council adopted a statement earlier this month, denouncing the North’s April 5 rocket launch and calling for tightening sanctions.

North Korea has claimed that the UN rebuke is unfair because the rocket lift-off was a peaceful satellite launch. The US and some other countries, however, believe it was a test of long-range missile technology.

Under a 2007 six-nation deal, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, in return for 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions.

In June 2008, North Korea blew up the cooling tower there in a dramatic show of its commitment to denuclearization.