US censures NKorea's prospective nuke test

Washington, Oct 4: In an anticipated knee jerk, the United States has reacted sharply to what it calls North Korea's ''very provocative'' decision to test a nuclear weapon and immediately raised it at a closed-door meeting of the United Nations' Security Council last night.

State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said a weapons test would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and beyond and that the United States would ''respond appropriately'' to what he said would be a reckless act.

US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who raised the issue in a meeting of the Security Council called for a prompt action terming it a test case for the world body's ability to engage in preemptive diplomacy.

The United States has long believed that North Korea possesses at least some nuclear weapons. However, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, currently on a tour of West Asia said a nuclear test would be detrimental to the already tenuous relations that North Korea's has with its neighbours.

Addressing a press conference in Cairo yesterday, Ms Rice said that ''a North Korean nuclear test would be qualitatively different and would create a qualitatively different situation on the Korean peninsula.'' ''I think you would see that a number of states in the region would need to reassess where they stand vis-a-vis North Korea.

Certainly I think the United States would mull on the that are left now. But I just want to note it would be a very provocative act by the North Koreans, the US Secretary reiterated.

UNI

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