South Korea voiced grave concern today 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.
North Korea announced yesterday 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 today on the ministry's website.
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.