Salahuddin
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Friday urged North Korea not to carry out a planned nuclear-weapon test and warned Pyongyang of unspecified consequences if it did.
The warning, in a formal statement adopted unanimously, came three days after North Korea's announced it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a U.S. "threat of nuclear war and sanctions."
U.S. officials have said the reclusive state might detonate a device as early as this weekend, and a Chinese source said Pyongyang planned to carry out the test deep inside an abandoned mine.
A nuclear test would "jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond" and "bring universal condemnation by the international community," said the Security Council statement, read at a formal meeting by Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this month's council president.
It warned North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations."
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
Japan, which has satellites that can monitor North Korea's actions, and the United States had wanted a stronger statement threatening punitive action. The Security Council has already imposed an embargo -- on July 15 -- on dangerous weapons and related materials going or leaving North Korea.
"We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.
"And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test."
KIM MEETS ARMY COMMANDERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, making his first reported public appearance since the Tuesday announcement, held a meeting to rally army commanders on Friday.
But North Korea's official KCNA news agency did not mention preparations for a nuclear test in its report, which said Kim was welcomed "with stormy cheers of hurrah."
The soldiers shouted: "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected supreme commander comrade Kim Jong-il."
Oshima, who drew up the statement, said it "clearly indicated there will be consequences of their action" if North Korea conducted a test.
Oshima welcomed the statement shortly before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned visit to Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday on the North Korean situation.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States had encouraged China and "all other countries in the region that have influence on North Korea to use it to convince them to turn away from this."
The council statement urged Pyongyang to return immediately to six-party talks. The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have held talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, but North Korea walked out a year ago and refuses to return until Washington ends a financial squeeze.
Both Russia and China have suggested U.S. officials talk to Pyongyang directly, but Washington has turned this down unless it occurred on the fringes of the six-party talks.
TEST ON SUNDAY?
Three senior U.S. officials with access to intelligence told Reuters that U.S. speculation about a possible test centered on Sunday, the anniversary of when Kim became head of the national defense commission in 1997.
They said Pyongyang, which has in the past timed bold actions and announcements to coincide with significant dates, could choose Monday, North Korea Workers' Party Day as well as the U.S. holiday for explorer Christopher Columbus.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, however, said he did not sense tension was mounting.
"Unlike a rocket, we can't see it, so there is nothing we can say," Aso told reporters in Tokyo.
Missile tests by North Korea in July were widely anticipated because satellite pictures showed them being prepared for launch.
A Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said North Korea planned to conduct its test about 6,600 feet underground in an abandoned coal mine in the north of the country.
"They are more or less ready," the source told Reuters after speaking to North Korean officials. He did not give a timetable.
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley in Beijing, Carol Giacomo and Steve Holland in Washington)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061006/ts_nm/korea_north_dc
The warning, in a formal statement adopted unanimously, came three days after North Korea's announced it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a U.S. "threat of nuclear war and sanctions."
U.S. officials have said the reclusive state might detonate a device as early as this weekend, and a Chinese source said Pyongyang planned to carry out the test deep inside an abandoned mine.
A nuclear test would "jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond" and "bring universal condemnation by the international community," said the Security Council statement, read at a formal meeting by Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this month's council president.
It warned North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations."
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
Japan, which has satellites that can monitor North Korea's actions, and the United States had wanted a stronger statement threatening punitive action. The Security Council has already imposed an embargo -- on July 15 -- on dangerous weapons and related materials going or leaving North Korea.
"We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.
"And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test."
KIM MEETS ARMY COMMANDERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, making his first reported public appearance since the Tuesday announcement, held a meeting to rally army commanders on Friday.
But North Korea's official KCNA news agency did not mention preparations for a nuclear test in its report, which said Kim was welcomed "with stormy cheers of hurrah."
The soldiers shouted: "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected supreme commander comrade Kim Jong-il."
Oshima, who drew up the statement, said it "clearly indicated there will be consequences of their action" if North Korea conducted a test.
Oshima welcomed the statement shortly before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned visit to Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday on the North Korean situation.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States had encouraged China and "all other countries in the region that have influence on North Korea to use it to convince them to turn away from this."
The council statement urged Pyongyang to return immediately to six-party talks. The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have held talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, but North Korea walked out a year ago and refuses to return until Washington ends a financial squeeze.
Both Russia and China have suggested U.S. officials talk to Pyongyang directly, but Washington has turned this down unless it occurred on the fringes of the six-party talks.
TEST ON SUNDAY?
Three senior U.S. officials with access to intelligence told Reuters that U.S. speculation about a possible test centered on Sunday, the anniversary of when Kim became head of the national defense commission in 1997.
They said Pyongyang, which has in the past timed bold actions and announcements to coincide with significant dates, could choose Monday, North Korea Workers' Party Day as well as the U.S. holiday for explorer Christopher Columbus.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, however, said he did not sense tension was mounting.
"Unlike a rocket, we can't see it, so there is nothing we can say," Aso told reporters in Tokyo.
Missile tests by North Korea in July were widely anticipated because satellite pictures showed them being prepared for launch.
A Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said North Korea planned to conduct its test about 6,600 feet underground in an abandoned coal mine in the north of the country.
"They are more or less ready," the source told Reuters after speaking to North Korean officials. He did not give a timetable.
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley in Beijing, Carol Giacomo and Steve Holland in Washington)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061006/ts_nm/korea_north_dc
