Asia-Pacific

DPRK test site activity detected

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-05 21:21

Washington - The United States has detected activity at potential test sites in North Korea indicating possible preparations for a nuclear test, a US defense official said on Wednesday, as China urged restraint after the country said it planned a nuclear test. (Full Coverage on North Korea's Nuclear Crisis) 

A 2006 satellite image shows a nuclear facility in Yongbyon, North Korea. The US has detected activity at potential test sites in the country indicating possible preparations for a nuclear test, a US defense official said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

US spy satellites have picked up unusual movement of vehicles and other activity at locations that might occur before an underground nuclear test, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

But the official said the evidence was not definitive and noted that because the North Koreans have never conducted a nuclear test, "we don't really know what we're looking for."

Meanwhile China called for restraint amid rising tensions after Tuesday's announcement by Pyongyang.

"We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement on Wednesday on the ministry's website.

Liu urged a negotiated settlement, saying countries should "not take actions that escalate tensions."

The Chinese side has always sought a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and called for safeguarding peace and stability throughout the peninsula and Northeast Asia through the Six-Party Talks.

Russia's and South Korea's foreign ministers denounced as "unacceptable" Pyongyang's plan for a test, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It said Russia's Sergei Lavrov and South Korea's Ban Ki-moon discussed the North Korean situation by telephone. "It was stressed that such steps, which could only aggravate the situation ... are unacceptable," the statement said.

Offshore Accounts

The Six-Party talks, which involves China, the DPRK, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, have been stalled since the first phase of the fifth round of talks ended last November

Pyongyang has refused to return until the United States ends a crackdown on North Korean offshore bank accounts, which Washington says is aimed at ending suspected illicit activities and has nothing to do with the six-party process.

Analysts and officials said Pyongyang's nuclear test announcement on Tuesday could well be an attempt to push the United States into direct talks about ending the crackdown.

South Korea's Unification Minister, Lee Jong-seok, said he saw a strong element of trying to apply pressure on the United States.

"In the event efforts to resume the six-party talks break down, the possibility of a North Korean nuclear test is high," Lee told a parliamentary committee.

Analysts say North Korea probably could make a nuclear weapon but lacks the technology to make it small enough to fit on a missile. They also note that in its July test, North Korea's long-range missile fizzled out just after take-off.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen sharply since July when Pyongyang test-fired missiles.

North Korea said that its hand has been forced by Washington's "proclamation of war" by threatening economic sanctions.

"These kinds of threats of nuclear war and tensions and pressure by the United States compel us to conduct a nuclear test," North Korean embassy spokesman Pak Myong Guk said in Canberra.

"Now the situation around the Korean peninsula is very tense," Pak said. "It may be breaking out (in) a war at any time, I think."

Diplomats who have visited North Korea in recent months say officials they have spoken to seem to genuinely believe that the United States -- which keeps 30,000 troops stationed in the South and has branded the North as part of an "axis of evil" -- is set to bring down their government.