US says will not accept N Korea as nuclear state

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – US Defense Secretary Robert  Gates said yesterday the United States would not accept a  nuclear-armed North Korea and he warned Pyongyang against  transferring nuclear material overseas.

A South Korean newspaper reported that Pyongyang was  preparing to move an intercontinental ballistic missile from a  factory near the capital to a launch site on the east coast.
In a speech to the Asia Security Conference in Singapore,  Gates said the threat from North Korea, which this week  detonated a nuclear device and launched a series of missiles,  could start an arms race in Asia.

“We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the  capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or  on us,” he said. “We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear  state.”
North Korea — one of the world’s last remaining Communist  states — has said it was no longer bound by the armistice that  ended the 1950-53 Korean War. It threatened further actions in  response to any U.N. censure.

Gates said Washington would hold North Korea accountable if  it transferred any nuclear material outside its borders.
Impoverished North Korea has earned billions of dollars from  exporting missile technology to Pakistan and the Middle East,  defence analysts say.
Gates did not elaborate on how the United States might  respond. He had earlier said no additional troops were being  deployed to the peninsula, where 28,000 US soldiers are  stationed, and he emphasised diplomacy in his remarks.

Heightened alert
South Korean and US troops were on heightened alert over  the possibility that Pyongyang may provoke an incident along  their heavily armed border.
North Korea has said it might test an intercontinental  ballistic missile in response to UN punishment for what  Pyongyang said was a satellite launch on April 5.
“Preparations to move an ICBM from the Saneum Weapons  Research Centre near Pyongyang by train have been captured by  US spy satellites,” South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper quoted  a source in Washington as saying.

The research lab is the North’s main centre of research and  manufacture of long-range missiles, the newspaper said.
South Korea’s defence ministry had no immediate comment.

A US defence official said the United States had observed  “above average activity” at a site in North Korea that has  previously been used to test-fire long-range missiles.
In New York, the United States and Japan circulated a draft  U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the claimed nuclear  test and demanding strict enforcement of sanctions imposed after  the North’s first atomic test in October 2006.

In Moscow, the Kremlin said Russian President Dmitry  Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed on the need  for a serious response to North Korea.
“The parties shared the view that there is a need to most  seriously respond to these steps, representing a challenge to  the international security system,” a Kremlin statement said.
Gates said North Korea was not a direct military threat now.

“If (the North Koreans) continue on a path they are on, I  think the consequences for stability in the region are  significant and I think it poses the potential for some kind of  an arms race in this region,” Gates said. He met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on  the sidelines of the Singapore conference.

Western diplomats said permanent Security Council members  Russia and China have agreed in principle that North Korea  should be sanctioned for its nuclear test but it was not clear  what kind of penalties they would support. Both are generally  reluctant to approve sanctions.