South Korea urges N Korea to refrain from test

GENEVA, June 20 (Reuters) South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon called on North Korea today not to carry out reported plans to test a long-range missile and return to six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programmes.

In a speech to the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament, he said that the North Korean nuclear issue was one of the most serious challenges facing northeast Asia.

''My government is deeply concerned that a launch of a long-range missile by North Korea would have serious negative repercussions for stability on the Korean peninsula and northeast Asia as well as for international efforts against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,'' Ban said.

''North Korea is strongly urged to refrain from taking such a negative step,'' he said in a text prepared for delivery to the 65-member state forum in Geneva.

Pyongyang should return to the six-party talks without Peconditions, said Ban, who is a candidate to take over from Kofi Annan as United Nations Secretary-General when he steps down at the end of the year.

The last round of the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States was held in November 2005.

US officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggest North Korea may have finished fuelling a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile for a test launch -- which Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have said would present a grave threat to regional security.

North Korea is also a member of the Geneva arms forum which is discussing how to launch global negotiations to halt production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material along with talks to prevent an arms race in outer space.

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