North Korea: UN sanctions are declaration of war

NORTH KOREA yesterday said it considered UN sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear test “a declaration of war”, as Japan and South Korea reported the communist nation might be preparing a second explosion.

North Korea broke two days of silence about the UN resolution adopted after its October 9 nuclear test with a statement on the official state news agency, as China warned Pyongyang against stoking tensions.

“The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war” against North Korea, the statement said. North Korea is known officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The chief US nuclear envoy, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said North Korea's response was “not very helpful”.

“I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what the international community feels about its actions,” Mr Hill said in Seoul after a meeting with his South Korean and Russian counterparts.

Mr Hill said he could not confirm South Korean and Japanese reports that North Korea may be preparing another nuclear explosion, but said a second test would force the international community “to respond very clearly”.

North Korea “is under the impression that once they make more nuclear tests that somehow we will respect them more”, Mr Hill told reporters after a meeting with US and Russian counterparts. “The fact of the matter is that nuclear tests make us respect them less.”

In its statement, North Korea said it would not be intimidated.

The communist nation “had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons”, the statement said.

“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.”

Chun Yung-woo, South Korea’s top nuclear envoy, dismissed the statement as “the usual rhetoric that they have been using at the time of the adoption of the Security Council resolution”.

China has long been one of North Korea’s few allies, but relations have frayed in recent months.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao warned Pyongyang against aggravating tensions, saying North Korea should help resolve the situation “through dialogue and consultation instead of taking any actions that may further escalate or worsen the situation”.

The US pressed on with a round of diplomacy in Asia aimed at finding consensus on how to implement UN sanctions on North Korea. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to go to Japan today before travelling to South Korea and China.