Last Call

As expected, North Korea has upped the stakes in response to yesterday's UN Security Council sanctions vote.

North Korea said Saturday it would strengthen its nuclear capabilities, a defiant protest against the U.N. Security Council's move to tighten sanctions against it.

North Korea officials said they were enriching uranium and would weaponize all plutonium, according to KCNA, the state-run North Korean news agency.

When enriched to a high degree, uranium can be used for weapons-grade material. Plutonium can be used in atomic bombs.

These moves are in response to Friday's U.N. resolution, according to the news agency, which referred to the resolution as a blockade.

"No matter how hard the U.S.-led hostile forces may try all sorts of isolation and blockade, the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), a proud nuclear power, will not flinch from them," KCNA said.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Friday to expand and tighten sanctions on North Korea after the nation's recent nuclear test.

The 15-0 vote on U.N. Resolution 1874 imposes an embargo on the shipment of arms from the communist regime and broadens a ban on the import of weapons.

The resolution comes amid rising tension surrounding North Korea, which recently conducted a nuclear test, fired test rockets and threatened United States and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. The nuclear test and the firing of six short-range rockets occurred in late May.

No additional nuclear testing has come yet, but we'll see how things will proceed.

A busy, busy weekend in the Obama State Department, that's for sure.