The United States and Japan urged the UN Security Council to threaten North
Korea with sanctions if it tests a nuclear weapon as Russia sought to stop
Pyongyang from testing a bomb.
A day after the United States said it had detected possible preparations for
a nuclear test, the US military reportedly launched a plane capable of detecting
atomic particles.
A South Korean newspaper predicted a test could take place next week.
At the United Nations, Security Council experts worked on a Japanese
non-binding statement urging Pyongyang "not to undertake such a test and to
refrain from any action that might aggravate tension."
The US delegation requested that the text be amended to include a threat to
resort to mandatory sanctions, including an arms embargo and other trade and
financial sanctions under Chapter Seven of the UN charter if a test occurs,
diplomats said.
Japanese vice foreign minister Shotaro Yachi backed invoking Chapter Seven,
which can authorize far-reaching sanctions or even theoretically military action
in cases of threats to international peace and security.
"In the event that North Korea conducts a nuclear test, it would inevitably
be necessary to seek a resolution with Chapter Seven," Yachi said in Washington.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the European Union would support
sanctions against North Korea if the country conducts a test.
"If that happens it will be no doubt some decisions will be taken at the
Security Council and the European Union will support them," he said.
New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who takes a firm stance on Pyongyang,
is set on Sunday to visit China and South Korea which have cautioned against
further isolating their neighbor.
"A good discussion has to take place at the United Nations to make the North
realize that if the country continues taking such actions it would be in an even
more severe situation," Abe said.
Meanwhile, Russia was "holding direct talks with the leaders of North Korea"
to try to prevent Pyongyang carrying out its test, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said in Warsaw.
"We are all very worried about this," Lavrov said.
North Korea on Tuesday raised the stakes in its nuclear dispute with the rest
of the world by announcing it would test a bomb at an unspecified date.
Chosun Sinbo, a newspaper published by Koreans in Japan and seen as
representing Pyongyang's view, warned Thursday that a test was "unavoidable"
unless the United States adopted a more conciliatory stance.
"The DPRK (North Korea) statement on a nuclear test is not empty talk," the
newspaper said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
Japan and the United States already have imposed most of the sanctions at
their disposal against North Korea.
The North has boycotted six-nation nuclear talks since November to protest US
sanctions aimed at blocking it from money laundering and counterfeiting.
Christopher Hill, the US lead negotiator to the stalled talks, said
Washington had warned the North Koreans against a test via their mission at the
United Nations.
"I am not prepared at this point to say what we are going to do, but I am
prepared to say we are not going to wait for a nuclear North Korea. We are not
going to accept it," Hill said.
A US military plane that can monitor nuclear tests flew from a US airbase in
Okinawa, Japan, in the direction of the Korean peninsula Wednesday, Japanese
media said. The Pentagon declined to confirm or deny the reports.
A US intelligence official said Tuesday unusual movement had been detected at
one of several suspected test sites in North Korea.
"The bottom line is they could conduct it with little or no warning," said
the official, who spoke to AFP in Washington on condition of anonymity.
A South Korean newspaper, Dong-a Ilbo, put two dates on the watchlist for a
test -- Sunday, October 8, marking the anniversary of leader Kim Jong-Il taking
leadership in the ruling Workers Party, and October 10, marking the party's
birthday.
The newspaper predicted the North Koreans could also pick October 9, when Abe
is due to make his maiden visit to South Korea as prime minister.
But senior Japanese officials said they had no signs yet that a test was
imminent.
