United States

US: N.Korean test would pose unacceptable threat

(Reuter)
Updated: 2006-10-04 17:09

Cairo - A nuclear test by North Korea would pose an "unacceptable threat" to peace and stability in the world and further isolate the nation, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

A statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry released earlier said Pyongyang would conduct its first nuclear test and blamed a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.

"It would be a very provocative act by the North Koreans," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

"A North Korean nuclear test would ... create a qualitatively different situation on the Korean peninsula," she said, saying other countries in the region would likely reassess their dealings with Pyongyang if it conducted a test.

After the United States last year began cracking down on Pyongyang's offshore bank accounts, North Korea refused to return to six-party talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States that are designed to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions in exchange for economic and political benefits.

"A North Korea test would severely undermine our confidence in the North Koreans' commitment to six-party talks and would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and the world," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the North the benefits they so rightly deserve," he added. "The US will continue to work with its allies and partners to discourage such a reckless action and will respond appropriately."

US officials declined to say how they might respond.

Rhetoric Escalation

The State Department's comments appeared to be an escalation in Washington's rhetoric toward Pyongyang.

But US officials said they remained willing to talk.

"We continue to say to the North Koreans that if they would like to have a meeting with Assistant Secretary (Chris) Hill again, all they need to do is agree to come back to the talks and sit down in that format and Chris Hill will be ready to talk to them as often as they want within those six-party talks," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.

That would include "briefings of information or discussion" of the financial sanctions, he said.

Still, Casey defended the US financial crackdown and said the policy would continue.

Hill, the US point man on North Korea, said last week a nuclear test would be a "very very serious matter" and Washington was working with its partners on a response.

Speaking generally, Hill said additional sanctions were being considered and US partners and members of Congress -- some of whom are skeptical about the use of economic sanctions against North Korea -- would be consulted.

Speaking in Washington, Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, called on other nations "to exert every effort to persuade North Korea that the test of a nuclear weapon would only bring it further isolation and would not be in the interest of the North Korean people."