UN: As the UN Security Council prepared to warn North Korea last night against a nuclear test amid speculation it might detonate a device deep inside an abandoned mine as early as this weekend, Japan said it was stepping up its monitoring of the secretive state.
North Korea said on Tuesday it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions".
"We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the US and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device," US ambassador John Bolton told reporters. "And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test."
The Security Council was expected to adopt a formal statement last night telling North Korea to abandon the plan and warning it of unspecified consequences if it went ahead.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, making his first reported public appearance since the Tuesday announcement, held a meeting to rally army commanders yesterday.
But North Korea's official KCNA news agency did not mention preparations for a nuclear test in its report, which said Kim was welcomed "with stormy cheers of hurrah".
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.
The council's statement, drawn up by Japan's UN ambassador Kenzo Oshima, says a nuclear test by North Korea would "jeopardise peace, stability and security in the region and beyond and bring universal condemnation by the international community".
The statement warns North Korea that a test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the UN". - (Reuters, AP)