Seoul gravely concerned at North Korea's test threat

SEOUL - South Korea voiced grave concern on Wednesday over North Korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb and China urged restraint after the United States said the move would be "an unacceptable threat" to world peace.

Reclusive North Korea announced on Tuesday it planned its first nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions".

The United States, France and Japan pressed for a UN 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.

"This government reaffirms the position that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons will never be allowed," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho told reporters.

He 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 in a short statement on Wednesday on the ministry's website ( www.fmprc.gov.cn ).

Liu urged a negotiated settlement over North Korea's nuclear test plans, saying countries should "not take actions that escalate tensions".

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

The Stalinist state's relations with the outside world have become increasingly tense since it test-fired missiles in July.

Although it said it had been forced into its position by "the US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure", it pledged never to use nuclear weapons first and do everything possible to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons altogether.

North Korea has used diplomatic crises in the past to get its voice heard. This latest statement is certain to overshadow coming visits by Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to South Korea and China.

Many analysts said the impoverished state's extreme sabre-rattling aimed to pressure Washington into holding direct talks and ending its painful squeeze on Pyongyang's offshore bank accounts.

The United States has refused, insisting that North Korea return to the six-country talks - along with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China - and negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea walked out of those negotiations almost a year ago, refusing to return until Washington ended its financial crackdown.

China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said that nevertheless this remained the most suitable forum for discussing the issue.

"If the six-party talks cannot do anything about it, I don't think the council is in a (position) to do it," Wang told reporters.

"Pyongyang may see this as a 'win-win' gambit," wrote Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank.

"Either Washington gives in to its demands for direct negotiations - which is unlikely - or renewed disputes about Washington's 'inflexibility' will drive deeper wedges between Washington and its negotiating partners, especially in Seoul and Beijing."

He said real leverage over the North lay with South Korea and China, North Korea's chief aid providers.

Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but not the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.

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

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

- REUTERS