Japan urges robust response amid fears of second N Korea test

TOKYO - A report of a second North Korean nuclear test spread fresh jitters on Wednesday as Japan, faced with Chinese and Russian reservations about the scope of UN sanctions, pressed for a robust response to Pyongyang's defiance.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary panel that Japan had unconfirmed information that the communist state might conduct another test on Wednesday after broadcaster NHK said Tokyo was checking reports of a tremor in North Korea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, told the same panel Japan had no information that a test had been carried out.

Ignoring UN warnings, North Korea announced on Monday that it had conducted its first-ever nuclear test. It says a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" forced its hand.

The yen slipped slightly against the dollar on fears that another test had been carried out, but Japanese stocks shrugged them off, with the Nikkei stock average rising about 0.5 per cent.

The state of high anxiety came a day after North Korea's closest ally, China, joined other powers at the United Nations in calling for a tough reaction to Pyongyang's nuclear challenge.

A North Korean official stationed in Beijing told Yonhap news agency a strict sanctions regime would be tantamount to war. "The more they press us, the stronger our response will be," he said.

In Japan, a traditional target of North Korean hostility, Abe called for a strong international response.

"If North Korea does not respond to our worries and if it poses a threat to peace and stability to the world, then the international community must show with attitude and actions that North Korea will be in an even more severe position," he said.

Human Rights Watch urged that emergency food aid to the impoverished North be continued, however, saying millions of ordinary citizens could be at risk of hunger and starvation.

China and Russia, which both border North Korea, met other veto-holding members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss a range of sanctions proposed by the United States and Japan to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme.

"I think that there has to be some punitive actions," said Beijing's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya. "We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response to North Korea's nuclear threat."

Russia called Monday's reported test a "colossal blow" to the nonproliferation regime but, like China, insisted an eventual UN resolution should not involve the use of force.

UN diplomats said China has already proposed the citing of specific provisions in the UN Charter to make sure any sanctions excluded any hint of military action.

Wang, the envoys said, had also made clear his opposition to a US proposal to allow international inspections of cargo leaving or moving into North Korea.

The United States, France and Britain, the three other permanent council members, agreed tough measures were needed fast, despite the fact that only Russia has said the evidence available confirms a nuclear blast actually occurred.

No council vote has been scheduled although diplomats hope the resolution can be adopted by Friday on an array of weapons-related and financial sanctions.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was still evaluating what happened on Monday, but that North Korea crossed "an important line" when it claimed it launched a nuclear test and the world must react.

"We have to take the claim seriously, because it is a political claim if nothing else," Rice told CNN.

Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the "working assumption" in the intelligence community is that it was a nuclear test that didn't go well.

There was speculation that an earthquake recorded off the coast of northern Japan on Wednesday may have been mistaken for a nuclear detonation, but the quake came after NHK's report.

However, Australia said it had information that North Korea might be about to conduct another test.

"We have information from contacts of ours, I won't go into what sources of information, but it's a real possibility," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters.

Downer added that a second test now would be "highly provocative" and would harden the Security Council's resolve as well as indicate that North Korea was "really out of control".

- REUTERS