New bomb threat as North Korea urges US to back off
NORTH Korea today apparently threatened to explode a second nuclear bomb unless the United States alters its tough stance on sanctions, as the South Korean military prepared for a nuclear conflict with its neighbour.
A North Korean official warned that the tough sanctions, proposed by the US to the UN Security Council following Monday's nuclear test, would be an act of war.
"Sanctions are nonsense. If full-scale sanctions take place, we will regard it as a declaration of war," the Beijing-based official is reported as saying. "The more they press us, the stronger our response will be."
In response to the escalating war of words, South Korea's military was today reported to be checking its readiness for nuclear war.
Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-ung was looking into the need for improving his troops' capabilities, including introducing state-of-the-art weapons capable of destroying the means of delivering nuclear weapons.
Earlier, the jitters felt across Asia were underlined by reports of a possible second nuclear explosion.
Japanese news reports said tremors had been detected that suggested North Korea had conducted another test. A Foreign Ministry official confirmed the government was looking into a possible second blast.
However, US and South Korean geological monitors said that they had not detected any new seismic activity in communist North Korea, and Japan's prime minister said he had no confirmation of a second blast - a position seconded by the White House.
And the reports were further contradicted, when North Korea's second in command was reported as saying the decision of whether to carry out further nuclear tests would depend on how the United States treats the country.
Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said that North Korea also considered US policy the main factor for determining whether to return to the stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programme.
It was not immediately clear whether Kim was threatening to carry out more tests unless Washington changed its policy. Pyongyang is eager for direct talks with the United States, but Washington has refused to meet outside the context of the six-party talks.
The US has pushed for a partial trade embargo, including strict limits on Korea's profitable weapons exports and freezing of related financial assets. All imports would be inspected too, to filter out materials that could be made into nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
State-controlled North Korean media denounced sanctions, saying: "Our enemies think they can do something to us through an economic blockade and psychological tricks, but it will turn out to be nothing more than a silly delusion."
The top US general in South Korea said today that the nuclear test doesn't alter American forces' deterrence against a possible attack by the communist nation.
"Be assured that the alliance has the forces necessary to deter aggression, and should deterrence fail, decisively defeat any North Korean attack against South Korea," General BB Bell said in a statement to troops.
"US forces have been well trained to confront nuclear, biological and chemical threats."
About 29,500 US troops are deployed in the South, a remnant of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
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