Nuclear test unacceptable, US warns N Korea

SEOUL - The United States yesterday warned that North Korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb would be "an unacceptable threat" to world peace.

Reclusive North Korea has not signalled a date for its first nuclear test, but said its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions".

The United States, France and Japan pressed for a United Nations response while Beijing, the nearest Pyongyang has to an ally, said the issue should be handled by the six-country forum involved in long-standing talks over the North's nuclear ambitions.

The US State Department said a test would be an "unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and the world".

Deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States remained willing to talk to Pyongyang "as often as they want within those six-party talks".

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said his Government was gravely concerned by North Korea's statement and urged Pyongyang to scrap its plans, which would ratchet up tensions even further on the Cold War's last frontier.

But China trod softly in its first official reaction to Pyongyang's announcement.

"We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the plans were inflammatory and incompatible with efforts to build security in the Asia-Pacific region.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said North Korea would suffer universal condemnation and weaken its own security if it carried out its threat.

- REUTERS