World Must Pressure North Korea Not To Test Nuke - UN
Date: 09-May-05
Country: USA
Author: Louis Charbonneau
A US defense official in Washington said US spy satellites images had shown what may be preparations for an underground nuclear test, although he warned that this also might be an elaborate ruse by the North Koreans.
The images showed a vast hole being dug at a possible test site at Kilju in northeastern North Korea, and then the hole being filled in, as might be done for an underground test, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The satellites also detected viewing stands set up some distance from the hole, possibly for North Korean government officials to watch any nuclear test, the official said.
The head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the situation was urgent and called on all leaders in contact with Pyongyang to use their influence to stop the reclusive state from detonating a nuclear bomb.
"I hope every leader who has contact with North Korea is on the phone today with North Korean authorities to dissuade (them) from a test," ElBaradei told reporters on the sidelines of a UN-sponsored conference on nuclear disarmament.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, flying with USPresident George W. Bush to Latvia, declined to discuss the intelligence reports of a possible test but said, "If North Korea did take such a step, that would just be another provocative act that would further isolate it from the international community."
"DISASTROUS REPERCUSSIONS"
Asked what the effect of a North Korean nuclear test would be, Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters: "There will be disastrous political repercussions in Asia and the rest of the world. I think there could be major environmental fallout, which could lead (to) dissemination of radioactivity in the region."
ElBaradei told North Korea to return to the negotiating table and to stop trying to extort concessions from the world.
"I think it will just get things from bad to worse. I'm not sure North Korea will gain anything by continuing ... to escalate the situation, by continuing to pursue nuclear blackmail," he said.
Six-party talks involving the United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia on Pyongyang's nuclear program have been stalled for almost a year, and recent efforts to restart them have shown little progress.
After kicking out UN inspectors at the end of 2002, North Korea became the first signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to withdraw from the 35-year-old bedrock pact for stemming the spread of nuclear arms.
The US official said the images did not show the North Koreans placing a nuclear device underground, but it was possible US satellites were out of position when such an event took place or that a device was, in fact, not put in place, the official said.
POSSIBLE BOMB
"You don't know what you don't see because they are a closed society. So you see holes. You see them putting dirt back over the holes. But did anybody see anything (a bomb) go in it? Why didn't we see it?" the official said.
Another US official said there could be many explanations for what was detected by the satellites, but he added: "The consensus is that there could be (a test) at any time and that itself has been true for some time.
"It seems less a technical issue than a political issue," he said.
Pyongyang announced in February that it had nuclear arms.
Violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty by North Korea and Iran, which Washington accuses of pursuing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian energy program, have dominated a conference taking stock of the 1970 treaty. Tehran denies wanting arms.
But the NPT review conference, which runs until May 27, has been unable to approve an agenda, with the treaty's 188 signatories bickering with each other over whether and how to repair loopholes in the pact.
The United States and France are clashing with Egypt in an attempt to block any official language at