South Korea yesterday warned North Korea against conducting any nuclear tests, saying they would further isolate Pyongyang and undermine its security, while the US said the North's resistance to international disarmament talks was unacceptable.
Concerns that the North is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal have escalated after it apparently shut down a nuclear reactor recently -- a move that could allow it to harvest weapons-grade plutonium.
"If North Korea takes a measure of recklessly conducting a nuclear test, that will further isolate North Korea, and North Korea will be going on a road that cannot have its future guaranteed," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said in a speech yesterday in Seoul.
"Nuclear weapons can never guarantee North Korea's security, and will only bring about and worsen the isolation of its politics and economy," Ban said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The warning came after some US media reported over the weekend that Pyongyang might be preparing for its first nuclear test.
Moon Hee-sang, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, played down those reports, saying yesterday that he was not aware of any signs that the North will conduct a nuclear test.
The top US envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue met with South Korean officials yesterday and discussed ways to revive stalled, six-nation disarmament talks.
"What we are focusing on is the diplomatic track and the need to get the talks going, and more importantly, once they get going, to achieve progress in the talks," Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said following his meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Song Min-soon.
"We need to be very clear that it is not acceptable for [the North] to be staying out of the talks," he said.
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