N Korea may face more sanctions after nuclear test

SINGAPORE, Oct 9 (Reuters) North Korea may face more sanctions after raising the nuclear ante in Asia with the announcement of an atomic test, though an outbreak of war appears unlikely now, officials and analysts said today.

While defence officials and seismologists reported seismic activity that could indicate a small atomic blast in North Korea, the reaction was loud and clear.

''We are outraged that a country that has to rely on the international community to feed its own people, and to bring them back from the brink of starvation, devotes so many of its scarce resources to missiles and nuclear weapons progress,'' Australian Prime Minister John Howard told parliament.

The White House called it a ''provocative act, in defiance of the will of the international community''.

The United States had not taken any military action in response and was not at this point moving military assets to the region, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

But U S Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is going to ask the Security Council to meet in an emergency session, he said.

Britain, a Security Council member, condemned the test.

''This further act of defiance shows North Korea's disregard for the concerns of its neighbours and the wider international community,'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement.

Japan, which many analysts saw as most directly threatened by any North Korean nuclear test, said it was considering options for further sanctions against Pyongyang and might push for a new UN Security Council resolution.

''The prime minister's office has been working on options for additional sanctions over the past two or three days,'' Foreign Minister Taro Aso told reporters. ''So probably Japan would take those actions, but it would have to decide which options to take.'' China, North Korea's chief ally and benefactor, denounced the test as ''brazen''.

''The Chinese government is firmly opposed to this,'' the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Beijing also called on Pyongyang to return to six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

North Korea has boycotted the talks, which Beijing has hosted, for almost a year in protest over U S sanctions on its alleged illicit financial activities.

South Korea, a key source of aid and investment in the North, said it will deal sternly with Pyongyang. Presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young said Seoul wants the matter brought to the United Nations, where South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will be formally nominated as UN secretary-general later today.

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