SEOUL (AP) —
North Korea said Tuesday it will conduct a nuclear test to bolster its self-defense against what it calls increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime — the strongest blow yet to efforts to convince the North to give up its drive for nuclear weapons.
"The DPRK will in the future conduct a nuclear test in a condition where safety is firmly guaranteed," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, using its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The statement gave no date as to when a test might occur, but the prospect that North Korea could soon take a major step forward in its nuclear weapons development triggered alarm and condemnation in foreign capitals.
North Korea has a recent history of making provocative statements but refraining from an all-out confrontation with its chief enemy, the United States, that could lead to its destruction.
However, a worst-case scenario maintains that a North Korean nuclear test could prompt Japan to seek its own nuclear deterrent, raising tensions with China and South Korea, both of which suffered under Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century.
It is the first time the North publicly announced its intent to conduct a nuclear test amid recent concerns that the communist country may be preparing for such a move.
Pyongyang has said it has nuclear weapons, but has not conducted any known test to prove its claim. South Korea's spy agency has said the North could test a nuclear bomb at any time.
"The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defense measure in response," said the statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"A North Korea test would severely undermine our confidence in the North Korean's commitment to Six Party Talks and would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia and the world," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, who was traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Mideast.
"A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the North the benefits they so rightly deserve," McCormack said.
The American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said the U.S. would bring up North Korea's statement for discussion Tuesday morning at the regular meeting of the U.N. Security Council, adding the North's nuclear test "would be extraordinarily serious."
In Finland, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said such a test "is always bad news."
Japan also reacted swiftly to the announcement. Foreign Minister Taro Aso called the North's nuclear test plans "totally unforgivable," and said Japan would react "sternly" if the North conducted the tests, according to Kyodo News agency.
South Korean security officials, including the foreign, defense and unification ministers, will meet Wednesday to discuss the country's responses in case of a North Korea nuclear test, Yonhap news agency reported. The presidential office said South Korea had raised its "security level."
China — North Korea's ally and chief benefactor — had no immediate comment.
The North's announcement comes as multilateral talks on its nuclear program remain stalled for almost a year. Pyongyang has boycotted the six-nation talks in protest over U.S. financial restrictions imposed for its alleged illegal activity, including money laundering and counterfeiting.
Analysts said the latest North Korean move is aimed at winning U.S. concessions, using its typical tactic of diplomatic brinkmanship to grab attention.
"A nuclear test will serve as an opportunity for North Korea to boast to the outside world that it, indeed, is a nuclear state and it also believes such a test will help it win bigger and faster concessions from the U.S.," said Park Joon-young, a North Korea expert at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
Charles Kartman, who represented the U.S. in previous nuclear talks with North Korea in the late 1990s, said: "If they feel they are not getting interaction with us, they tend to do things to get our attention."
"The tools that they have are all bad ones. They don't really have anything else going," Kartman said.
Efforts to bring the North back to the negotiating table have taken on added urgency after the communist nation stoked regional tension in July by test-firing seven missiles, including one believed to be capable of reaching even parts of the U.S.
Reports have also suggested the North might conduct a nuclear test, citing suspicious activity at a possible underground test site. Many experts believe the North has enough radioactive material to build at least a half-dozen or more nuclear weapons.
The North said Tuesday its ultimate goal is "to settle hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and to remove the very source of all nuclear threats from the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity," accusing the U.S. of posing a nuclear threat in the region.
The North, however, said it will "never use nuclear weapons first and strictly prohibit any threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear transfer," defending its nuclear weapons as a protection from "the U.S. threat of aggression" and a measure "to safeguard peace and stability on the Korean peninsula."
"The DPRK will do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and give impetus to the worldwide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons," the statement said.
The talks — among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S. — last met in November, when negotiators made no progress toward implementing a September 2005 agreement, when the North pledged to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
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