North Korea plans nuclear test, US calls it threat
03 Oct 2006 22:41:09 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds Rice quote paragraph 12, Casey 14-15) By Jonathan Thatcher SEOUL, Oct 3 (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday it would conduct its first nuclear test, prompting the United States, France and Japan to urge the U.N. Security Council to respond to what Washington called "an unacceptable threat" to world peace. A statement by the Foreign Ministry of the isolated communist state blamed a U.S. "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand. While the United States, France and Japan pressed for a U.N. response, China said the issue should be handled by the six nations conducting talks with Pyongyang. South Korea heightened its security alert after Pyongyang's announcement. Britain said it would view a test as highly provocative, while Russia urged North Korea to show restraint. North Korea's relations with the outside world have become even more tense since it test-fired missiles in July. "The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK (North Korea) to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense," said the statement carried by North Korea's official KCNA news agency. It added that it would never use nuclear weapons first and would "do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and give impetus to the world-wide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons." The two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia have held talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, but North Korea walked out of them a year ago and refuses to return until Washington ends a financial squeeze. FACE-OFF WITH WASHINGTON Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but not the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile. Pyongyang's most extreme saber rattling to date appeared aimed at trying to force Washington into direct one-to-one talks and to end a crackdown on impoverished North Korea's offshore bank accounts, analysts said. Washington has rejected the idea of bilateral talks until Pyongyang returns to the six-party talks. A nuclear test "would be a very provocative act by the North Koreans," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a joint news conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. She said a nuclear test would "create a qualitatively different situation on the Korean peninsula," and other countries in the region would likely reassess their dealings with Pyongyang if it conducted a test. In a statement issued in Cairo, the U.S. State Department said a test would be an "unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and the world." In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States remained willing to talk to Pyongyang "as often as they want within those six-party talks." Casey said this would include "briefings of information or discussion" of the financial sanctions, but he defended the U.S. financial crackdown and said the policy would continue. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Security Council should devise a strategy for "preventive diplomacy" and not just issue a statement. A Security Council resolution in July condemning North Korean ballistic missile tests needed to be followed up, he said. "Obviously the ballistic missiles, if mated with nuclear weapons, would be a very grave threat to international peace and security," Bolton said before consultations among the 15 council members. Members decided to meet again on Wednesday after consultations with their respective capitals. China's U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya said the issue should be handled by the six nations conducting North Korea talks. China is North Korea's main supplier of aid. "If the six-party talks cannot do anything about it, I don't think the council is in a (position) to do it," Wang told reporters. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, traveling in Nicaragua, would not comment on whether there was a change to the status of U.S. troops, and said the threat did not change his calculation of the military threat posed to South Korea. A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said a North Korean nuclear test could spur Japan, Taiwan and even South Korea into a new Asian arms race. Selig Harrison, an American analyst with the Washington-based Center for International Policy who recently visited North Korea, said its statement was aimed at pressuring Washington for bilateral talks on the financial sanctions. But he expected it would have the opposite effect because President George W. Bush would not bow to a North Korean threat, especially before the Nov. 7 U.S. election. (Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Kim So-young in Seoul, Linda Sieg in Tokyo, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Gideon Long in London, Evelyn Leopold in New York, Arshad Mohammed in Cairo, Kristin Roberts in Managua, Nicaragua, and David Morgan and Carol Giacomo in Washington)
