Japan issues warning over N Korea nuclear test

Japan said today it will push for a punitive UN resolution if North Korea conducts a nuclear test despite a Security Council warning, amid reports that Tokyo plans to step up its own economic sanctions against the reclusive communist regime.

North Korea’s threat to conduct its first nuclear weapon test has prompted grave international concern, and its neighbours applauded the Security Council statement urging the North to cancel the test, which could come as early as tomorrow. The statement warned of unspecified consequences if North Korea proceeds with the test, and urged it to return immediately to talks on scrapping its nuclear weapons programme.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso welcomed the statement, saying Japan sees a possible nuclear test by North Korea as “a grave threat to the peace and security of not only Japan but also of north-east Asia and the international community”.

“If North Korea conducts a nuclear weapons test despite the concerns expressed by international society, the Security Council must adopt a resolution outlining severely punitive measures,” Aso said in a statement released after the council meeting.

If that happens, the Japanese government plans to step up trade restrictions and freeze additional North Korea-linked bank accounts, the Nihon Keizai business newspaper reported.

Tokyo began stepping up trade restrictions on North Korea in July after it test-fired seven missiles, including a long-range rocket, into the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

In September, Japan took additional measures in line with a UN Security Council statement that denounced the July launches.

In those measures, Japan banned fund transfers and overseas remittances by 15 groups and one individual suspected of links to North Korean weapons programmes.

Japanese officials have said they are stepping up monitoring of North Korea and preparing for any contingency after a diplomat suggested a test over the weekend was a possibility.

An underground nuclear explosion can triggerseismic waves that can be strong enough to be picked up by earthquake-detecting equipment.

Japan also has two intelligence-gathering satellites and launched a third in September that can monitor the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

The government also plans to sample radioactivity in the air using monitoring systems at nuclear power plants across the nation, Kyodo News agency reported.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he plans to call for a separate message demanding that the North abort its nuclear test plans during his fence-mending summits in Beijing and Seoul next week. Abe is to meet his counterparts in Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday.