North Korea blames US for nuclear test 'fuss'

SEOUL - Reports it could soon conduct an underground nuclear weapons test were speculation cooked up by Washington, North Korea said yesterday, but the secretive state did not deny outright that one might be planned.

Media reports have said spy satellites show North Korea has apparently stepped up activity in its northeastern region of Kilju. The area has been suspected of being where the North would conduct a test, US and South Korean officials have said.

"The United States is making a fuss that our republic may proceed with an underground nuclear test in June and it will report its own view to the International Atomic Energy Agency and other countries, including Japan," the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

The official KCNA news agency reported about the commentary on its Korean-language service. The South's Yonhap news agency carried the report.

The commentary did not deny North Korea might conduct a test. It said reports of an impending nuclear test were "US strategic opinions", KCNA said.

The United States has said it may take North Korea to the UN Security Council, where Pyongyang could face possible sanctions, if the North stays away from six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.

"Let the United States do whatever it wants," the commentary said. "That's our bold stance."

The data from spy satellites indicates cranes, trucks and other heavy equipment are in the area digging holes and conducting other activity that increase the prospects of an imminent test, US and South Korean officials have told newspapers.

DANGEROUS GAMBLE

North Korea said in February it possessed nuclear weapons and was withdrawing from six-party talks. In recent weeks it has increased tensions by threatening to boost its nuclear arsenal and by shutting down a nuclear reactor from which it can harvest fissile material for nuclear weapons.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman did not directly comment when asked if China, the North's old ally, had communicated with Pyongyang about a possible nuclear test, but he indicated Beijing would disapprove of such a development.

"I'd like to repeat that upholding the goal of the de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is the important consensus reached by all sides of the six-party talks," Liu Jianchao told a news briefing.

Choi Jin-wook, an expert on the North's nuclear programmes at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Pyongyang may be staging the activity for the spy satellites in order to bluff that it was preparing a test, and better its bargaining position.

"North Korea will not unnecessarily engage in any brinksmanship that could result in them being permanently isolated from the international community," Choi said.

A nuclear test is a dangerous gamble for North Korea that could bolster it stature as a nuclear state and change the dynamics of regional diplomacy. But a test would also likely lead to economic sanctions that could cripple its fragile economy, he said.

The key player in sanctions would be the North's main benefactor and trading partner, China.

China can veto sanctions at the Security Council and analysts said they would be meaningless unless China shuts the border it shares with the North, something Liu repeated it would be unwilling to do.

"We don't want to solve the issue by pressures or sanctions and we think such measures would not necessarily be effective," he said.

If sanctions were in place, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would likely be left with little food and fuel coming from the outside world to support the North's faltering economy.

This would deal a blow to the its stumbling industrial and agricultural sectors as well raise the prospect of famine in a country already facing severe food shortages, analysts said.

On Monday, Washington sought to coax North Korea back to the negotiating table by saying it viewed the communist state as sovereign and it would hold direct talks with it as part of the stalled six-party dialogue.

There have been three inconclusive rounds of talks involving North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The last round was held in June 2004, but Liu said the world should not lose heart over the long delay.

- REUTERS