N Korea says US pressure 'declaration of war'

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14 (Reuters) North Korea's UN ambassador said any further US pressure on Pyongyang will be a ''declaration of war'' and that his country ''totally rejects'' UN Security Council sanctions imposed today.

''If the United States increases pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of war,'' Pak Gil Yon told the Security Council.

He accused the council -- which imposed harsh financial and arms sanctions on North Korea to punish Pyongyang for its underground nuclear test on Monday -- of ''double standards.'' ''The Democratic People's Republic of Korea expresses its disappointment that the security council finds itself incapable of saying even a word of concern to the United States,'' Pak said.

He said the United States ''threatens the DPRK with nuclear preemptive attack and aggravates tensions by reinforcing armed forces and conducting larger scale joint military exercises nearby the Korean Peninsula.'' ''The Democratic People's Republic of Korean totally rejects the unjustifiable resolution 1718, 2006, adopted by the Security Council just now,'' he said.

The US-drafted resolution allows nations to stop cargo going to and from North Korea to check for weapons of mass destruction or related supplies. In a concession to China, the resolution specifically excludes the use of force, but allows economic sanctions and naval and air transport restrictions.

Kenzo Oshima, Japan's UN ambassador, told reporters he was surprised by North Korea's reaction, but that it was not ''totally unexpected.'' US Ambassador John Bolton said North Korea's repeated rejections and its walk-out from a closed-door council session last month was the 21st-century equivalent of former Soviet Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the table in the UN General Assembly in 1960.

REUTERS SRS PM0055