NORTH KOREA: North Korea remained defiant in the face of international pressure to end its nuclear programme yesterday, denouncing UN sanctions as a declaration of war, while a South Korean official said there were signs the North may be getting ready for a second atomic weapons test.
In its first official response to UN sanctions approved on Saturday, North Korea promised it would "deal merciless blows" if its sovereignty was violated and said it wanted "peace, but is not afraid of war", in a statement by the country's foreign ministry carried on the official Korean Central News Agency.
With even its only friend China approving sanctions against its communist ally, Pyongyang's statement was remarkably combative, saying North Korea had withstood international pressure before and would certainly not yield now that it had become a nuclear power.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons. It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state," ran the statement.
North Korea insists it wants nuclear weapons only to stop any military intervention by the United States. At the same time, Pyongyang seemed to be gearing up to raise the stakes in the nuclear stand-off.
US spy satellites detected suspicious activity near North Korea's nuclear test site that may signal preparations for another detonation, according to media reports. While the reports were not confirmed, a South Korean official said Pyongyang was believed to be making preparations "with the possibility of a second test in mind".
Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said he did not exclude the possibility that Pyongyang would detonate another nuclear device, a step Washington's top envoy on North Korea, US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill, warned would be considered a "belligerent act".
"Russia's reaction in that case would be exactly the same as it was to the first nuclear explosion - that is, negative," Mr Ivanov said, highlighting how the international community has responded with a rare degree of unanimity to the tests.
A UN Security Council resolution, agreed last weekend, imposed sanctions that are mostly aimed at ending North Korea's weapons programmes and ending the worsening nuclear stand-off in the region.
China's fears about the possible collapse of an impoverished state on its border has prompted concern it may not rigorously enforce the sanctions, but Wu Bangguo, the second-highest-ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party, underlined his country's commitment to the sanctions in line with other nations.
"We need to make North Korea realise that it will pay a high price" for conducting a nuclear weapons test, Mr Wu told a meeting in Japan, the first time that a high-ranking member of China's leadership used such tough language in describing Beijing's stance on the North. Mr Wu also stressed the need not to "force North Korea into a tight corner."
Mr Hill, speaking to reporters after crisis talks in South Korea, warned Pyongyang it would head deeper into isolation if it conducted another test.
"We would all regard a second test as a belligerent answer on North Korea's part to the international community," said Mr Hill. "The DPRK really has to understand that the international community is not going to accept the DPRK as a nuclear state." Washington confirmed on Monday that the underground explosion near the Chinese border on October 9th was indeed a nuclear explosion, as Pyongyang had claimed.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive in Tokyo today for talks on the crisis, on a visit that will also include Seoul, Beijing and Moscow. Dr Rice is expected to push for the restart of the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. EU foreign ministers also demanded that North Korea refrain from further nuclear tests.