U.S. Tells North Korea Not to Carry Out Nuclear Test
The United States urged North Korea on Monday not conduct a nuclear test or launch a satellite and called on China to exert its influence over its neighbor to try to ward off such “provocative actions.”
North Korea, which is pressing ahead with plans for a satellite launch despite U.S. and regional appeals that it desist, is also preparing a third nuclear test, South Korean news reports said on Sunday.
Another nuclear test is bound to scare neighbors and infuriate the West, which has long sought to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying North Korea was “clandestinely preparing a nuclear test” at the same location as the first two.
The State Department repeated its advice to the North not to launch a satellite, saying this would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and a February 29 denuclearization agreement.
“Our position remains: don’t do it,” said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “North Korea’s launch of a missile would be highly provocative, it would pose a threat to regional security and it would be inconsistent with its recent undertakings to refrain from any kind of long-range missile launches.”
Nuland told reporters a third North Korean nuclear test “would be equally bad if not worse.”
She declined comment on whether the United States also had reason to believe that the North might be preparing a nuclear test, saying she could not discuss intelligence matters.
North Korea, which three years ago pulled out of six-party disarmament talks on its nuclear program, agreed in February to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches in return for food aid, opening the way to a possible resumption of the negotiations.