Fears of second N Korea nuclear test

Reports of a possible second North Korean nuclear test jolted Asia today while key powers considered punitive action against the communist nation for its first atomic blast.

US and South Korean geological monitors said they had not detected any new seismic activity in North Korea, and Japan’s prime minister said he had no confirmation of a second blast.

The worldwide alarm underlined the jitters felt after North Korea announced it had tested its first nuclear bomb.

The announcement led to a US-backed push for the UN Security Council ti impose sanctions on the communist state.

Some say the regime may conduct more tests amid suspicion the first, relatively small explosion might have partially failed.

Concern was triggered early today after the Japanese government detected tremors that led it to suspect North Korea had conducted another nuclear test, according to news reports and a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Shortly afterwards, the country’s meteorological agency reported that a 6.0 magnitude earthquake had shaken northern Japan.

However, agency spokesman Yukuhiro Watanabe said that quake was being considered separately from reports of new tremors in North Korea.

Data from elsewhere suggested all was quiet in North Korea.

“There’s no signal from North Korea, even no small event,” Chi Heon-cheol, director of the South’s Korea Earthquake Research Center, told The Associated Press.

But the region’s anxiety was reflected by Australia’s foreign minister saying today that Australia has “real concerns” that North Korea will conduct a second nuclear test soon.

“We have very real concerns that they may conduct another nuclear test and that they may do so very soon,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Blair Jones said signs pointed to an earthquake, not another underground nuclear detonation.

“We have detected no evidence of additional North Korea testing,” Jones said. “Japanese officials are now saying that this occurrence may be related to an earthquake in northern Japan. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and consult with our allies in the region.”

Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Brian Maka, said: “We have received no credible information to confirm any of that. No seismic activity has been detected on our part.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary meeting early Wednesday that he had no information to confirm a second nuclear test by North Korea.

“I have had not received information about any indications ... that a test has take place,” Abe said.

Overnight at the United Nations, the North Korean nuclear crisis settled into a diplomatic debate, with China agreeing to punishment but not severe sanctions backed by the US, which it said would be too crushing for its impoverished communist ally.

China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters that the council must give a “firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response” to North Korea.

“I think there has to be some punitive actions but also I think these actions have to be appropriate,” he said.

The comments signal a hardening stance by Beijing, which is seen as having the greatest outside leverage on North Korea as a traditional ally and top provider of badly needed economic and energy aid.

The Bush administration in the US asked the UN Security Council to impose a partial trade embargo including strict limits on North Korea’s profitable weapons exports and freezing of related financial assets. All imports would be inspected too, to filter out materials that could be made into nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

The United States reiterated it would not talk with the North Koreans one-on-one, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured the North that the US would not attack.

Earlier yesterday, Pyongyang again demanded one-on-one talks with Washington and threatened to launch a nuclear-tipped missile if the US does not help resolve the standoff.

Washington insists on sticking to the so-called six-party format, where Russia, China, South Korea and Japan have joined the United States in talking to North Korea.