The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) blasted UN sanctions yesterday aimed at punishing the country for its atomic test, saying the measures were a declaration of war and that the nation would not cave in to such pressure now that it is a nuclear weapons power.

The remarks the government's first response to the UN measures approved last weekend came as China told the DPRK not to stoke tensions and the American nuclear envoy arrived in the Republic of Korea (ROK) for talks.

Japan and the ROK said Pyongyang might be gearing up for another test.

The DPRK broke two days of silence about the UN resolution adopted after its October 9 nuclear test, issuing a foreign ministry statement on its official Korean Central News Agency.

"The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war" against the DPRK, the statement said.

The DPRK warned it "wants peace but is not afraid of war" and that it would "deal merciless blows" against anyone who violated its sovereignty.

The nation "had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons," the statement said. "It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state."

The ROK's top nuclear envoy shrugged off the statement.

"There are no surprises, but the usual rhetoric that they have been using at the time of the adoption of the Security Council resolution," Chun Yung-woo said.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill the chief US nuclear envoy said the DPRK's statement was "not very helpful."

"I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what the international community feels about its actions," Hill told reporters in Seoul after a meeting with his ROK's and Russian counterparts.

The United States pressed on with a round of diplomacy in Asia aimed at finding consensus on how to implement UN sanctions on the DPRK. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to go to Japan today before travelling to the ROK and China.

After arriving in Seoul yesterday, Hill said he could not confirm media reports that the DPRK may be preparing for another test explosion.

But Hill stressed that the international community should make the DPRK pay a "high price" for its "reckless behaviour."

Hill told reporters he wanted to talk to ROK officials about reports the DPRK was getting ready for a second nuclear test. Japan's government also had "information" about another possible blast, Foreign Minister Taro Aso told reporters, without elaborating.

But a senior ROK official told foreign journalists that despite signs of a possible second test, it was unlikely to happen immediately.

"We have yet to confirm any imminent signs of a second nuclear test," the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

The ROK has said it would fully comply with the UN sanctions resolution, but also has been cautious about allowing sanctions to shake regional stability.

Seoul has also indicated that it has no intention of halting key economic projects with the DPRK, despite concerns that they may help fund the north's nuclear and missile programmes.

"Sanctions against the DPRK should be done in a way that draws the country to the dialogue table," ROK's Prime Minister Han Myung-sook said yesterday, according to Yonhap news agency. "There should never be a way that causes armed clashes."

EU set to condemn DPRK

The 25 EU nations were set yesterday to "strongly condemn" the nuclear testing carried out by the DPRK and take immediate measures to apply the subsequent UN sanctions.

In a draft resolution released at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the European Union "strongly condemns the test of a nuclear explosive device," announced by the DPRK on October 9.

The Korean move "poses a danger to regional stability and represents a clear threat to international peace and security," the draft added.

The EU "will fully implement the provisions" of the UN Security Council resolutions following the nuclear test, according to the resolution which was to be formally approved by the EU foreign ministers later in the day.

The EU, in its draft, calls on the DPRK "to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes, and to comply with its obligations" under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

These include submitting all its nuclear activities to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

China Daily