N.Korean test would pose unacceptable threat-US

CAIRO, Oct 3 (Reuters) A nuclear test by North Korea would pose an ''unacceptable threat'' to peace and stability in the world and would further isolate the reclusive nation, the US State Department said today.

A statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry released earlier said Pyongyang would conduct its first-ever nuclear test and blamed a US ''threat of nuclear war and sanctions'' for forcing its hand.

''A North Korea test would severely undermine our confidence in the North Koreans' commitment to six party talks and would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and the world,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Cairo, where US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is meeting Arab officials.

''A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the North the benefits they so rightly deserve,'' he added. ''The US will continue to work with its allies and partners to discourage such a reckless action and will respond appropriately.'' North Korea has refused to return to six-party talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States that are designed to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions in exchange for economic and political benefits.

The State Department's response to the North Korean threat appeared to be an escalation in Washington's rhetoric toward Pyongyang.

The US pointman on North Korea, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, last month said such a test would be a ''very very serious matter'' and that Washington was working with its partners to develop a response.

McCormack said the United States and its partners would keep working to bring the North Koreans back to the table and noted that they had offered to hold a round of six-party talks in July on the sidelines of an Asian security gathering.

A senior US Defense official appeared to play down the North Korean threat, saying: ''We've seen this coming or at least hints of it.'' Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the United States and its partners ''seek the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through peaceful, diplomatic means.'' Speaking in Washington, he also called on other nations to do everything possible to dissuade North Korea from conducting a test.

US officials have long pressed China to do more to persuade North Korea to return to the negotiating table.

''We call on all five members of the six party talks and the United Nations Security Council ... to exert every effort to persuade North Korea that the test of a nuclear weapon would only bring its further isolation and would not be in the interest of the North Korean people,'' Jones said.

REUTERS SP BD2107