Washington - North Korea denounced United Nations sanctions over its reported nuclear test as a declaration of war on Tuesday and the United States and others suspected it might try a second bomb test despite international condemnation.
US officials said North Korea had moved equipment into place that may indicate it plans a second nuclear test, but differed on the timing of another possible blast.
Defiant in the face of sanctions backed by even its closest ally, China, Pyongyang said it had withstood international pressure before and so was hardly likely to yield now that it had become "a nuclear weapons state" with the reported October 9 test.
| 'The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war' |
"The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war," he said, referring to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The Bush administration began a diplomatic campaign to rally international support for the sanctions, and said it would view another test as "belligerent" and "provocative".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left on a trip to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Moscow seeking to bolster support for the sanctions and and find practical ways to implement them.
In Japan, she was to meet the new prime minister, whose government is most closely allied with the US position in punishing North Korea for the nuclear test.
Rice's biggest challenge will be to get firm assurances from China, worried over the possible collapse of the impoverished, militarised state it borders, that it will follow through on the UN resolution.
Japan's Kyodo news agency, quoting a government official, said Chinese President Hu Jintao had voiced concern about how the sanctions are applied.
"Things must be done in such a way that they don't bring about an escalation of the situation into something uncontrollable," he told Japanese lawmakers.
for more information on IOL.
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