The United States is warning allies that North Korea may be ready to carry out an underground nuclear test as early as June, diplomats said Saturday. The diplomats told The Associated Press that the information had been apparently gathered in part from satellite imagery. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of discussing intelligence information. The reported U.S. warnings reflected growing fears in Washington that the North is going ahead with efforts to develop nuclear weapons after South Korean officials said Pyongyang had recently shut down a reactor, possibly to harvest plutonium that could be used in an underground test. The 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium, but they must be removed and reprocessed to extract the plutonium for use in an atomic weapon. They can be removed only if the reactor has been shut down. North Korea restarted the reactor after expelling U.N. monitors at the end of 2002. On Friday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill - Washington's point-man on North Korea - warned the communist state against conducting a nuclear test, saying such a move would be a "truly troubling" complication for suspended six-nation talks on halting Pyongyang;s nuclear program. The negotiations - among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - stalled last June after three inconclusive rounds.
