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US sees possible North Korea test site activity
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 04 - 10 - 2006

The United States has
detected activity at potential test sites in North Korea
indicating possible preparations for a nuclear test, a U.S.
defense official said on Wednesday, as China urged restraint
after the reclusive state said it planned a nuclear test, according to Reuters.
U.S. spy satellites have picked up unusual movement of
vehicles and other activity at locations that might occur
before an underground nuclear test, the U.S. 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, the closest North Korea has to an ally,
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 short statement on Wednesday
on the ministry's Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn).
Liu urged a negotiated settlement, saying countries should
"not take actions that escalate tensions."
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.
The United States, France and Japan have all pressed for
the issue to be dealt with at the United Nations. But Beijing
wants it resolved through six-country talks set up to end North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has snubbed those talks -- involving the two
Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- for
almost a year.
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.
The Stalinist state has triggered diplomatic crises in the
past to get its voice heard.
Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen sharply
since July when Pyongyang defied international warnings by
test-firing missiles.
North Korea argues that its hand has been forced by what a
North Korean diplomat called 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 told
Reuters 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.
They doubt the risk of sanctions and more damage to an
already subsistence economy will deter the Pyongyang
government, which rights groups say has one of the world's
worst human rights records.
The North's latest move is certain to dominate talks from
this weekend when Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe,
visits South Korea and China.
Some analysts said North Korea may have timed its
announcement partly in the hope that China and South Korea will
persuade Japan to soften its approach to North Korea.


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