NKorea says UN debate would wreck nuke talks

North Korea said Thursday that any United Nations discussion of its forthcoming rocket launch would be seen as a "hostile act" and would cause the breakdown of international nuclear disarmament talks.

A foreign ministry spokesman said even a UN Security Council discussion, "to say nothing of its adoption of any document containing even a single word critical of the launch whether in the form of a 'presidential statement' or a 'press statement,' will be regarded as a blatant hostile act."

The announcement dramatically raised the stakes in the confrontation between North Korea and the United States and its allies over the launch.

Pyongyang has announced it will fire a rocket between April 4-8 to put a communications satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.

The rocket -- believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2 missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska -- has been moved to a launch pad, a US counter-proliferation official told AFP in Washington.

The United States, South Korea and Japan say the launch is a pretext for a long-range missile test and say they would refer it to the Security Council.

US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told reporters Thursday that North Korea is "attempting to demonstrate an ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile capability through a space launch."

The North Korean spokesman told official media that any "hostile" act would be in breach of a landmark nuclear disarmament deal which the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia reached in September 2005.

The deal was formalised in a February 2007 pact which led the North to shut down its plutonium-producing atomic plants in return for energy aid.

"The moment the September 19 joint statement is ignored due to such a hostile act, the six-party talks will come to an end," the spokesman said.

"All the processes for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, which have been pushed forward so far, will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken."

The spokesman did not describe the possible "strong measures."

The Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan, hinted Thursday that the North could resort to a second nuclear test should the UN sanction it.

Thursday's statement was tougher than a similar one Tuesday and appeared to throw down a gauntlet to Washington after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she would seek a UN response to a launch.

"We intend to raise this violation of the UN Security Council resolution, if it goes forward, in the UN," Clinton said.

"This provocative action, in violation of the United Nations mandate, will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences."

The United States, South Korea and Japan say a rocket launch for any reason would breach a UN resolution passed in 2006 which demanded that the North halt missile and nuclear tests.

North Korea's cabinet newspaper Minju Joson blasted South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's government for its opposition to the satellite launch.





Egghead : A man poses with the alleged largest egg in the world during a photocall in central London. The egg was laid in the early 17th century, by the now extinct Great Elephant Bird of Madagascarto. AFP/Shaun Curry

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