Rice heads for Beijing to cool NKorea tensions

BEIJING, Oct 20 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to Beijing today as attention focused on whether a group of Chinese diplomats returning from Pyongyang had managed to persuade North Korea to cool nuclear tensions.

Rice's crisis trip to east Asia has been overshadowed by speculation that communist North Korea might be about to detonate a second nuclear device following its first-ever test on Oct 9.

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said the United States was preparing for the possibility not only of a second nuclear test but a further round of missile tests like the one Pyongyang conducted in July.

''You have to anticipate they may do more missile launches as well,'' the official told reporters. ''They're clearly trying to get attention and trying to provoke a crisis.'' Two leading nuclear weapons experts said in an analysis published yesterday that North Korea could have little faith in its nuclear stockpile given the yield of its first nuclear test and hence was likely to conduct another.

''This imperfect test may well lead North Korea to test again,'' physicists Richard Garwin and Frank von Hippel wrote in the Arms Control Association's ''Arms Control Today Magazine''.

While Rice was on her own diplomatic push in Seoul yesterday, China -- North Korea's strongest backer -- said it had sent three diplomats to Pyongyang to meet leader Kim Jong-il.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said today that the Chinese officials, who included state councillor and former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan, had left for Beijing. Rice was due to meet Tang in the Chinese capital.

DIFFERENCES OVER SANCTIONS In Seoul yesterday, Rice said she hoped the Chinese mission would convince North Korea to return to moribund six-party talks on winding up its nuclear programme.

But a senior State Department official was less optimistic and said he did not expect any ''surprise announcement'' from Tang.

''Our understanding is that the North Koreans have not been in the mood to return to (six-party) talks. If anything they are looking to escalate the crisis further,'' said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The six-party talks have been stalled for the past year after the United States imposed financial restrictions on North Korea. The talks bring together the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China.

Rice played down differences with South Korea and China over financing and weapons sanctions imposed on North Korea for its underground test in a UN resolution, saying Washington had no wish to escalate the crisis.

China in particular fears a heavy-handed approach to inspections of cargo at sea may provoke military confrontations and stoke tensions on the Korean peninsula.

It is also wary about squeezing its food and energy lifeline to Pyongyang, fearing this could lead to an exodus of refugees and even the ultimate implosion of the state.

Rice said some reports on how to implement inspections of North Korean vessels on the high seas had been ''exaggerated'' and insisted the United States had no intention of imposing a blockade or putting the already isolated state in quarantine.

''The idea that we would do something ... that escalates tensions on the Korean peninsula or on the high seas for that matter could not be more wrong,'' said Rice.

''CBS Evening News'', quoting US intelligence sources, reported on Thursday that a North Korean ship possibly carrying military equipment banned by the UN sanctions had left that country for an unknown destination.

The report said the ship was being tracked while US officials tried to determine what was on board and what to do about it. No other details were available.

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