North Korea denounced United Nations sanctions on Tuesday as a declaration of war, while across the border in Seoul an official said there were signs the reclusive Communist state may be preparing for a second nuclear test.
Defiant in the face of sanctions backed by even its closest ally, China, Pyongyang said it had withstood international pressure before and so was hardly likely to yield now that it had become ”a nuclear weapons state”.
”The DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons,” official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying.
”It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state.”
”The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war,” the spokesperson said. ”It wants dialogue but is always ready for confrontation.”
The United States government has now confirmed the October 9 underground blast, which brought worldwide condemnation and the harsh sanctions, was a nuclear explosion as Pyongyang claimed.
The New York Times said the explosion was most likely not fuelled by uranium, but rather by plutonium harvested from its small, mothballed nuclear reactor.
The report, quoting unnamed officials, suggests fears that Pyongyang had developed a uranium programme based on equipment and know-how from Pakistan were unfounded.
US news networks NBC and ABC said on Monday spy satellites had spotted what may be preparations for another detonation in North Korea.
There was no official confirmation, but a South Korean official told reporters the government was making preparations ”with the possibility of a second test in mind”.
”There are certain signs that prompted our authorities to cast a very sensitive eye on the matter, but at this point, we have no verification that point to anything imminent,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Asian stock markets twitched nervously on the reports, with both Japan and South Korea slipping into the red.
Bleak future
The United States warned North Korea it was heading deeper into isolation following last weekend’s UN Security Council resolution, which imposes sanctions mostly aimed at choking off the country’s weapons programmes.
”I think North Korea has put itself on a course to much deeper isolation from the international community and ultimately to a very, very bleak future,” said US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill as he arrived for crisis talks in Seoul.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao said Beijing would ”resolutely oppose” a second nuclear test by its neighbour.
US undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said China was already taking action to check goods crossing into North Korea.
But China’s worries about the possible collapse of the impoverished and highly militarised state on its border has prompted concern it may not rigorously enforce sanctions.
China’s UN ambassador said on Monday his country would carry out inspections to spot any suspicious arms from North Korea, but ruled out interdiction, an apparent reference to stopping cargo on the high seas.
”Inspections yes, but inspections are different from interception and interdiction,” ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters.
The resolution did not make it mandatory for nations to inspect cargo to and from North Korea, he said.
Spokesperson Liu said Beijing, as a permanent member of the Security Council, always strictly enforced its resolutions.
Liu declined to comment on Japanese media reports that China was halting some remittances to Pyongyang through its state bank.
The daily Asahi Shimbun quoted a Bank of China official as saying the move was related to the UN sanctions.
But it also appeared to be part of wider steps by Chinese banks to restrict North Korean activities that started earlier this year after the US Treasury imposed financial restrictions to hit alleged currency counterfeiting and drug-trafficking.
Hill was expected to press Seoul to ensure that two major economic projects in North Korea that are run by an affiliate of the South’s Hyundai group — a mountain resort and an industrial park — respect the terms of the UN resolution.
He will be followed to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza, who is due to arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday on a visit that will also include Seoul, Beijing and Moscow.
Officials say Rice will seek to cement the unified approach to North Korea and restart the six-party talks, a forum aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
North Korea’s nuclear capability
The facility
North Korea’s nuclear programme is centred at Yongbyon, about 100km north of Pyongyang. The complex consists of a five-megawatt reactor and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material would be extracted from spent fuel rods.
Extracting fissile material
Experts and intelligence reports indicated that North Korea had extracted enough fissile material from Yongbyon to produce one or two nuclear weapons by the early 1990s.
In October 1994, the United States and North Korea struck a deal to freeze the Yongbyon complex in exchange for more proliferation-resistant reactors to be built by an international consortium. That project has been cancelled.
Escalation
In October 2003, Pyongyang said it had enhanced its nuclear deterrent by reprocessing 8 000 spent fuel rods from Yongbyon. US intelligence experts said the North could extract enough fissile material from those rods for another four to six weapons.
In February 2005, North Korea declared for the first time it had nuclear weapons.
In May 2005, North Korea said it had extracted more fuel rods from Yongbyon. Proliferation experts said this could eventually provide enough material for another two or three atomic bombs.
The tally
A conservative estimate would be that North Korea has enough fissile material for at least six to eight nuclear weapons, proliferation experts have said, with some saying it could have enough for more than a dozen.
Delivering a weapon
It is impossible to say whether North Korea has built a workable nuclear weapon. Experts said the secretive state has conducted many tests on nuclear bomb-related technologies.
North Korea has an extensive missile programme but no one is sure if the North can make a nuclear weapon small enough to mount on a warhead.
The North test-fired seven missiles on July 5, including its long-range Taepodong-2 with a range some experts said could one day reach US territory. – Reuters