North Korea threatens further action if U.S. remains "hostile"

(Reuters) - North Korea's Foreign Ministry said its nuclear test on Tuesday was an act of self-defense in response to hostility from the United States and that it will take stronger follow-up actions if Washington keeps up its belligerence.

"This nuclear test was only the first response we took with maximum restraint," an unnamed spokesman for the ministry, which acts as Pyongyang's official voice to the outside world, said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

"If the United States continues to come out with hostility and complicates the situation, we will be forced to take stronger, second and third responses in consecutive steps."