Canberra - Threats by the United States to apply economic sanctions against
North Korea were a declaration of war forcing Pyongyang to plan a nuclear test,
a senior North Korean diplomat in Australia said Wednesday.
"Now the situation around the Korean peninsula is very tense, it may
be breaking out a war at any time I think," North Korean embassy spokesman
Pak Myong Guk said in Canberra.
Australia, a close US ally and one of only a few Western countries
to have diplomatic ties with North Korea, summoned its ambassador, Chon Jae
Hong, to express outrage over the country's threat to conduct its first
nuclear test.
Pak said before that meeting that US threats of economic and financial
sanctions amounted to "a proclamation of the war".
"These kinds of threats of nuclear war and tensions and pressure by the
United States compel us to conduct a nuclear test," he said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said officials had warned Chon
that Canberra would respond to a North Korean nuclear test with new restrictions
on ties with Pyongyang.
"I am outraged that a country that has to rely on the international community
to feed its own people devotes so many of its scarce resources to missile and
nuclear weapons programs," he said in a statement.
Last month, Australia slapped sanctions on 12 companies it said were helping
finance North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. Australian firms are currently
free to do business in North Korea, although trade is negligible.
Pyongyang announced on Tuesday it was planning to carry out its first nuclear
test, prompting South Korea to immediately heighten its security alert.
The United States, France and Japan urged the
UN Security Council to respond to what Washington called "an unacceptable
threat". China urged calm and restraints, saying the issue should be handled at currently
stalled six-country talks aimed at ending the nuclear standoff on the peninsula.
North Korea has boycotted the talks -- also including South Korea, China, the
United States, Russia and Japan -- since last November, refusing to return until
Washington ends a financial clampdown on its international financial dealings.
Washington, meanwhile, rejects North Korea's demand for one-on-one talks
until it returns to the six-party forum.
As China urged restraint by all concerned, Australian Prime Minister John
Howard called on the United Nations to act.
"The rest of the world regards them, in a diplomatic
way, as an international outlaw," he said.