VARIOUS: The United Nations warns Pyongyang not to conduct nuclear tests

The United Nations on Friday (October 6) warned North Korea not to proceed with a planned nuclear test and urged Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table as unnamed Chinese sources said the reclusive state was "more or less" ready to conduct its first nuclear test deep inside an abandoned coal mine. The anonymous Chinese source previously briefed by Pyongyang said a device would be detonated about 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) inside a mine near the border with China in the north of the country. US intelligence suggests that such a test could be conducted on Sunday (October 8) which coincides with the day Kim Jong-Il was appointed head of the national defense commission in 1997 or on Monday (October 09) North Korean Worker's Party Day and also Columbus day in the US. Intelligence sources say that North Korea is known for planning important actions on significant dates. But whatever the possible date of ignition, the United Nation Security Council is urging Pyongyang to return to six party talks. "The Security Council urges he DPRK to return to the six party talks without precondition," said President of the Security Council, Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima in a statement during a council meeting on Friday (October 06). The UN has also warned North Korea of other possible Security Council actions. Many think that a North Korean nuclear test could create problems in the region's and the world's stability and peace. "The main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and many other Council members feel, that they should not test this nuclear device and if they do test it, it will be a very different world the day after the test," said John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN. Pyongyang has boycotted six-party talks aimed at persuading it to abandon its atomic arms program for almost a year since the United States froze its assets in a Macau bank. Washington has said the move is part of a crackdown on suspected North Korean counterfeiting, money-laundering and drug-trafficking. The anonymous Chinese source has stated that North Korea would not go ahead with its Nuclear test if the US agrees to stop the sanctions. According to analysts, neighboring China, who also takes part in the six party talks and has been seen as the country with the most influence over Pyongyang, would like the United States to soften their hardline stance. "China wants to see a stable Korea peninsular, they also don't want to see American sanctions. So they would love to see the Americans taking a much softer line towards North Korea because they don't want to see the North Korean regime collapse. And they sit there and trying to balance, what do we want ? What's more dangerous to us - a nuclear North Korea or collapse North Korea. And in those two, they rather have the nuclear North Korea than the collapse North Korea. Collapse North Korea is a disaster for China," said Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Professor, David Zweig. Both Russia and China have suggested U.S. officials talk to Pyongyang directly, but Washington has turned this down unless it occurred on the fringes of the six-party talks. Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile. Missile tests by North Korea in July were widely anticipated because satellite pictures showed them being prepared for launch.

ITN Source | October 7, 2006

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