'NKorea threatens steps over Japan sanctions'

Tokyo, Oct 12: North Korea will take ''strong counter-measures'' against Japan if it goes ahead with new sanctions against the country, a senior North Korean diplomat was quoted as saying today.

Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted Song Il-ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalisation talks with Japan, as making the comment about Tokyo's decision to implement new steps in response to Pyongyang's announcement on Monday that it had conducted a nuclear test.

''We will take strong countermeasures,'' Kyodo quoted Song as saying in a report from Pyongyang.

''The specific contents will become clear if you keep watching. We never speak empty words.'' Japan decided yesterday to impose additional sanctions on North Korea, including banning imports from the impoverished communist state and blocking North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports.

The steps will be approved by the cabinet on Friday, and Japanese officials said Tokyo would consider further measures depending on North Korea's future behaviour and developments in the international community.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said that Tokyo had decided on its own measures in view of the fact that a North Korean nuclear weapons programme, coupled with its missile arsenal, would pose a grave threat to Japan.

Song was quoted as saying that Pyongyang would regard Japan's measures as ''more serious in nature'' compared to others because Tokyo has yet to adequately atone for its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

''We will be taking countermeasures by calculating that in,'' it quoted Song as saying.

The United States is seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution by Friday that would allow for punitive measures against North Korea.

REUTERS

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