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Last update - 20:39 27/05/2009
Russia calls in North Korea envoy with 'concern' over nuclear test
By Reuters
Tags: Israel News, South Korea 

Russia on Wednesday called the North Korean ambassador to the foreign ministry where he was told Moscow had "serious concern" over this week's nuclear test, a ministry statement said.

"During the talks that were held, we let him (the envoy) know of the serious concerns Russia has regarding the underground nuclear test conducted in North Korea on May 25," the statement said.

The ministry also called on North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear programme.
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Russia is taking security measures as a precaution against the possibility tension over North Korea could escalate into nuclear war, news agencies quoted officials as saying on Wednesday.

Interfax quoted an unnamed security source as saying a stand-off triggered by Pyongyang's nuclear test on Monday could affect the security of Russia's far eastern regions, which border North Korea.

"The need has emerged for an appropriate package of precautionary measures," the source said.


"We are not talking about stepping up military efforts but rather about measures in case a military conflict, perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons, flares up on the Korean Peninsula," he added. The official did not elaborate further.

North Korea has responded to international condemnation of its nuclear test and a threat of new U.N. sanctions by saying it is no longer bound by an armistice signed with South Korea at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying the "war of nerves" over North Korea should not be allowed to grow into a military conflict, a reference to Pyongyang's decision to drop out of the armistice deal.

Dangerous brinkmanship

"We assume that a dangerous brinkmanship, a war of nerves, is under way, but it will not grow into a hot war," the official told Tass. "Restraint is needed."

The Foreign Ministry often uses statements sourced to unnamed officials, released through official news agencies, to lay down its position on sensitive issues.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned the North Korean tests but his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned the international community against hasty decision.

Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council which is preparing to discuss the latest stand-off over the peninsula.

In the past, Moscow has been reluctant to support Western calls for sanctions. But Russian officials in the United Nations have said that this time the authority of the international body is at stake.

Medvedev told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who called him on Wednesday, that Russia was prepared to work with Seoul on a new U.N. Security Council resolution and to revive international talks on the North Korean nuclear issue.

"The heads of state noted that the nuclear test conducted by North Korea on Monday is a direct violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution and impedes international law," a Kremlin press release said.

North Korean threatens South with war

Earlier Wednesday North Korea, facing international sanction for this week's nuclear test, threatened to attack the South after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction.

The threat came after South Korean media reported Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium.

U.S. President Barack Obama is working to form a united response to Monday's nuclear test, widely denounced as a major threat to stability that violates UN resolutions and brings the reclusive North closer to having a reliable nuclear bomb.

A North Korean army spokesman reiterated that the country was no longer bound by the armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War because Washington had ignored its responsibility as a signatory by drawing Seoul into the anti-proliferation effort.

"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," the spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.

South Korea announced on Tuesday it was joining the naval exercise, called the Proliferation Security Initiative.

An angry Pyongyang, which relies on arms sales for cash, had said it considered such a move an act of war.

The nuclear test has raised concern about Pyongyang spreading weapons to other countries or groups. Washington has accused it of trying try to sell nuclear know-how to Syria and others.

The rival Koreas have fought two deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002 near a disputed maritime border off their west coast and the North has threatened in the past year to strike South Korean vessels in those Yellow Sea waters.

Pyongyang also test-fired a third short-range missile late on Tuesday after it added to tensions with the launch of two others earlier in the day, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted a unnamed government source as saying.

The secretive state appears to have made good on a threat issued in April of restarting a facility at its Yongbyon nuclear plant that extracts plutonium, South Korea's largest
newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported.

"There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation (and) have been detected by U.S. surveillance satellite, and these including steam coming out of the facility," it quoted an unnamed government source as saying.

The Soviet-era Yongbyon plant was being taken apart under a six-country disarmament-for-aid deal and there were no signs yet that the North, which conducted its only prior nuclear test in October 2006, was again separating plutonium.

Seoul's financial markets, which had fallen in the wake of the nuclear test, rose on Wednesday though traders said investors were still nervous about when the North would try to
be more provocative and ratchet up tension in the region.

Analysts say Pyongyang's military grandstanding is partly aimed at tightening leader Kim Jong-il's grip on power so he can better engineer his succession and divert attention from the country's weak economy, which has fallen into near ruin since he took over in 1994.

Many speculate Kim's suspected stroke in August raised concerns about succession and he wants his third son to be the next leader of Asia's only communist dynasty.

The country, which has a history of using military threats to squeeze concessions out of global powers, may have ramped up its provocations early in Obama's presidency in order to have more cards to play during his time in office.

There may be little the international community can do to deter the North, which has been punished for years by sanctions and is so poor it relies on aid to feed its 23 million people
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  1.   So where the hell is the UN? 10:56  |  Lily 27/05/09
  2.   The starving man is extorting again 10:58  |  Mark Leaman 27/05/09
  3.   Humanity never learns!! 11:00  |  Yosi 27/05/09
  4.   Obama is getting the finger but doesn`t seem to feel it! 11:21  |  redbourn 27/05/09
  5.   To Lily 11:31  |  Anne 27/05/09
  6.   A sentnce that answers itself 11:58  |  nina 27/05/09
  7.   China, South Korea, Japan, US, Canada, plus UN should... 12:19  |  Jengiz Khan 27/05/09
  8.   The North Korea threat. 12:23  |  Stephen. 27/05/09
  9.   Why should Obama respond to a childish brat? 12:44  |  Ninjateck 27/05/09
  10.   It is a small step.. 13:15  |  Joe W 27/05/09
  11.   To #1 The UN only goes into active mode when... 13:53  |  D 27/05/09
  12.   Here we go again!!! 13:59  |  bruce david 27/05/09
  13.   #.2. Mark Leaman. 14:12  |  Stephen. 27/05/09
  14.   Jengiz Khan It suits China to have Korean competition divided 14:30  |  PETER SM 27/05/09
  15.   LILLY where is UN?Obsessing about Palestine 14:31  |  PETER SM 27/05/09
  16.   What is on those export ships? Going where? 17:25  |  American 27/05/09
  17.   The UN? 17:40  |  CRodgers 27/05/09
  18.   # 15 petersm 18:07  |  Axel 27/05/09
  19.   Obviously, it is all Israel`s fault. No? 18:07  |  just wondering 27/05/09
  20.   Russian statements. 19:37  |  David Nigel Braham 27/05/09
  21.   North Korea 19:41  |  Joshua 27/05/09
  22.   The UN 20:36  |  Eduard 27/05/09
  23.   Goals and Behavior 21:40  |  Mark Lincoln 27/05/09
  24.   The China play? ??Try 23:14  |  a wandering Jew 27/05/09
  25.   Jnegiz Khan 23:21  |  Mark Lincoln 27/05/09
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