US says N Korea nuclear test would be 'provocative'

WASHINGTON, Oct 9: US officials today said they believed North Korea had conducted a ''provocative'' underground nuclear test, an event that would present a significant new election-year challenge to President George W Bush.

An intelligence source said a preliminary examination of the data did not indicate a large blast, or a series of explosions, but stressed that analysts were still working on a a definitive evaluation.

The White House said it expected the UN Security Council to take immediate action against North Korea, which Bush in 2002 branded part of an ''axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq.

Pyongyang announced it had safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, defying world powers and flying in the face of a warning from the Bush administration that the United States could not live with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

''US and South Korean intelligence detected a seismic event yesterday at a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

''A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act, in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in northeast Asia.''

US FOREIGN POLICY CONCERNS

The reported test came as the Bush administration has been preoccupied with trying to prevent a civil war from breaking out in Iraq and to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear program that Washington believes is aimed at producing a weapon.

The test would significantly raise the stakes in the nuclear standoff with North Korea. It comes as Bush and his fellow Republicans try to persuade voters ahead of November 7 elections -- in which control of the US Congress is up for grabs -- that they can keep America safer than Democrats.

The options for Bush, who has said he wants to resolve the issue diplomatically, appear to be limited to sanctions.

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

US officials have been discussing a number of sanctions to impose on North Korea in the event it went ahead with a nuclear test, including military exercises with other countries that might effectively create a blockade around the already isolated communist state.

US Ambassador John Bolton will ask the Security Council to take up the issue, Snow said.

STALLED TALKS

Bush has fended off questions about North Korea by insisting that any talks with Pyongyang be conducted through a six-party format involving the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and North Korea. His goal has been to avoid having the United States negotiate directly with North Korea and instead include countries in the region with the most at stake in a diplomatic outcome to keep nuclear weapons off the Korean Peninsula.

But the six-party talks have been stalled for a year with North Korea refusing to return to the table, instead insisting on direct talks with Washington. Differences have emerged among some of the parties on how tough to get with Pyongyang.

The United States was told by South Korea that North Korea's underground nuclear test was a magnitude of 3.58 and there was no initial sign of nuclear leakage, a senior US official told Reuters yesterday.

There was no immediate formal confirmation from the United States that the test had occurred.

But the senior U.S. official told Reuters: ''The Chinese got told (by Pyongyang) 20 minutes ahead, immediately told us and Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans confirmed test at 3.58 on Richter scale. (It was an) underground and there were no reports of leakage but this is really early.'' Another official said: ''Everybody's working assumption is that something has occurred.''

REUTERS