South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon made the comments after the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Washington was concerned a North Korean nuclear test could be in the works.

"If North Korea takes reckless measures such as a nuclear test, it will be isolated further from the outside world with its future unguaranteed," Ban told a seminar here.

"Nuclear weapons will not guarantee North Korea's security but deepen its political and economic isolation," Ban said.

He urged North Korea to resume six-nation talks which are aimed at dismantling the country's nuclear programs.

US satellites have spotted increased activity at North Korean sites where underground nuclear tests could be carried out, the Wall Street Journal said Friday, citing a US official.

The report came after North Korea raised the stakes in the stand-off over its nuclear programs by shutting off a nuclear reactor. The move would allow spent fuel rods to be removed and plutonium to be extracted for atomic weapons.

North Korea's military chief, Kim Yong-Chun, said Sunday the communist country would "steadily bolster" its nuclear deterrent as a result of hostile moves by the United States.

Top US nuclear negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, arrived in Seoul Sunday on the first leg of a trip to South Korea, Japan and China.

On Monday, the US envoy met his South Korean counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon, and Ban.

Hill will visit Beijing Tuesday and Tokyo Wednesday before flying back to Seoul Thursday for another three-day visit.

With patience running out, the United States is suggesting the nuclear standoff should be brought before the United Nations Security Council if a new round of multilateral talks cannot be brokered.

North Korea has warned that any referral to the Security Council would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

The talks involving the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan have stalled since three rounds ended inconclusively in June, 2004. North Korea failed to show up for a fourth round set for September 2004.

North Korea declared in February that it had built nuclear weapons to use in self-defence against the United States.

US intelligence officials say they believe Pyongyang already possesses one or two crude nuclear bombs.

related report
US Expresses Frustration With N. Korea Over Nuclear Talks
Washington (AFP) Apr 25, 2005

Christopher Hill (R) US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs is greeted by South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon during their meeting to discuss six-way talks aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear program, at the foreign ministry in Seoul, 25 April 2005. Ban warned North Korea against conducting any nuclear tests, saying they would further isolate the communist state and undermine its security. AFP photo by Ahn Young-joon/Pool

The United States on Monday expressed frustration with North Korea's boycott of talks on its nuclear arms program, but stayed silent on reports Washington might seek a UN quarantine of the Asian state.

"We think that the stalemate has gone on for a long time, longer than any of us would have liked, and that we want talks to resume as soon as possible," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

"We're trying to work with China and South Korea and Japan and Russia to bring that about," he said in a reference to Washington's partners in the six-party talks with Pyongyang that stalled last year.

Ereli said Christopher Hill, the new assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs, would have discussions this week in China and Japan after meeting over the weekend with South Korean leaders.

He said Hill would arrive in China on Tuesday to discuss prospects for restarting the North Korea talks, then travel to Japan on Wednesday and make a final stop in Seoul on Friday before heading back to Washington.

But Ereli could not confirm a New York Times report that Washington might seek a UN resolution empowering all nations to intercept shipments in or out of North Korea that may contain nuclear materials.

Asked whether President George W. Bush's administration was discussing the possibility of seeking such a UN resolution, Ereli said, "At senior levels, not that I'm aware of. I don't know about other levels."

Amid increasing speculation that Pyongyang could be readying its first nuclear test, Ereli acknowledged that recent statements by North Korea about its nuclear arms program were "disturbing."

But he insisted Washington was still committed to a negotiated settlement through the six-party talks.

"Talk about other options presumes that we've given up, or we've determined that our efforts to resume six-party talks aren't going anywhere and we need to take a different tact," he said. "We've not reached that point."

Hill told reporters in Seoul that the United States and its allies were aware North Korea was "stalling" and added, "We need to be very clear that it is unacceptable for them to stay out of the talks."

He declined to speculate on what steps might be taken if North Korea continued to snub the talks. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week Washington reserved the right to take the matter to the UN Security Council.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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