North Korea Warns of More Nuclear Tests

North Korea has issued a stern warning to the international community, declaring that it will carry out numerous additional nuclear tests in the future if the US maintains its "hostile policy" towards them.

|PIC1|Kim Yong-nam, the second most senior person in the North Korean government, issued the warning, according to a report by Japan's Kyodo news.

According to the news agency, Kim stated, "The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US policy toward our country. If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that."

It was also stated by the senior North Korean official that one of the main factors in determining whether the country would return to six-party talks was the attitude and policy that the US would take on the country

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned that further testing may be imminent.

"We have very real concerns that they may conduct another nuclear test and that they may do so very soon," he said, according to the BBC.

|QUOTE|Meanwhile, France's Defence Minister has said the claimed nuclear explosion was so small it was either a failure or a non-nuclear explosion.

In a radio interview, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said, "Given its weak power, it is hard to say if it was a very large, but traditional, type of explosion or else a nuclear explosion... If it was a nuclear explosion, it was a failed explosion."

The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, has commented on the issue: "A nuclear test by a new state in 2006 is not only a new regional threat to world security. It is also a dangerous consequence of the failure to meet international political obligations and commitments especially among those governments who have taken up nuclear arms, openly or otherwise."

British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, has said that North Korea's nuclear test posed a "clear threat to international peace and security".

Beckett addressed the House of Commons Tuesday 10 October 2006 urging a tough approach be taken by the international community.

"The world has been united in its condemnation of North Korea's action, which was carried out in direct defiance of the will of the international community. The UK will be pushing for a robust response given the clear threat posed to international peace and security by the test," she said.

The UN Security Council is currently debating a draft resolution of punitive sanctions, which were proposed by the US.