Washington: The United Nations Security Council on Monday weighed severe sanctions against North Korea while US President George W. Bush vowed the international community would "respond" following a reported nuclear test by the reclusive communist nation.

Mr Bush spoke with the leaders of China, South Korea, Russia, and Japan and said they all agreed that "the proclaimed actions taken by North Korea are unacceptable and deserve an immediate response by the United Nations Security Council."

In New York, a UN spokesman called the test "a grave challenge" that violates international norms, aggravates regional tensions and creates serious security issues for the world community.

The Security Council discussed the issue and the current president of the 15-member council, Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, later told reporters that members strongly condemned the test.

Mr Oshima urged North Korea to refrain from further testing and return to the six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue. The talks fell apart after North Korea dropped out last year. The other five participants are— South Korea, China, the United States, Russia and Japan. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the world body's Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, "clearly feels that the best way forward is through the six-party talks." The United States has opposed North Korea's demands that it hold one-to-one nuclear talks, saying a multilateral diplomatic approach is required.

The US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, noted that "there was no one who even came close to defending this test by North Korea" during the Security Council meeting on Monday morning. However, it was not clear whether Russia and China, two of North Korea's closest allies, would support some of the tough sanctions proposed against the regime in Pyongyang.

A prominent member of the US Congress, meanwhile, urged China to back tough sanctions against its North Korean ally. Congressman Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, pointed out that when North Korea tested seven missiles on July 4, he had said the situation was a critical test of leadership for the Security Council and other participants in the six-party talks. "It is now imperative for Beijing to demonstrate that it is a responsible stakeholder in the community and step forward to enforce a rigorous sanctions regime against Pyongyang as a result of this reckless behavior," Mr Hyde said.

The Associated Press reported late on Monday night that the United States had circulated a draft resolution in the Security Council that would condemn North Korea's nuclear test and impose tough sanctions for Pyongyang's "flagrant disregard'' of the Security Council's appeal not to detonate a device.

The draft, obtained by the Associated Press, incorporates proposals circulated by the US to prohibit all trade in military and luxury goods and crack down on illegal financial dealings. It also includes, at Japan's urging, a provision to ban all countries from allowing any North Korean ships in their ports or any North Korean aircraft from taking off or landing in their territory if they carried arms, nuclear or ballistic missile-related material or luxury goods.

The US draft also seeks to prevent any North Korean financial transactions resulting from illicit counterfeiting, money laundering and narcotics, and "any abuses of the international financial system" that could contribute to the transfer or development of banned weapons, the AP reported. 

There was nothing to betray the feverish activity of North Korea's nuclear emerald green paddy fields to the heart of the hermit state.

We saw women bent under firewood they were carrying along the unlit roads just outside the capital, Pyongyang, in scenes of unbelievable poverty.

North Korea's 23 million people have been in the grip of a paranoid Communist dictatorship since 1946. Instead of economic development, like South Korea, the leadership, under the country's revered founder Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, opted for repression and isolation.

They decided long ago to develop nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against the hostile states on their doorstep.

They did it secretly, burying research facilities inside impenetrable mountains and buying the hardware to build a bomb off the shelf in the international black market. They achieved this in the midst of a famine that killed unknown numbers, by accepting international aid and diverting it to the military.

The North Koreans had no trouble in finding willing assistants in the international community. In 1975, the young Pakistani scientist AQ Khan had returned home, after working at a uranium enrichment facility in the Netherlands, and was looking for customers.

Khan, who developed the world's first Islamic nuclear bomb for Pakistan in a top-secret programme, in the mid-1980s opened his own private "supermarket" of nuclear technology transfers in which he sold secrets to anyone who would pay.

One branch was based in his Pakistan laboratories, where four or six scientists were perhaps unwittingly involved. But the hub was in Dubai, which took care of procurement and distribution, with the help of European businessmen.

One flight from Pakistan to North Korea carrying conventional weapons was intercepted by the Pakistani government, acting on a tip-off that more sensitive material was on board. They found nothing, apparently because Khan's people were informed in advance.

Similar flights to Iran, which has confirmed receiving a centrifuge blueprint from Khan in the 1980s as part of a starter kit for its nuclear programme, also took place.

Through his network, Khan transferred to North Korea "nearly two dozen" P-1 centrifuges, and the more sophisticated P-11 centrifuges, according to President Musharraf, who debriefed the Pakistani scientist after his fall from grace. It has become apparent that North Korea was part of a global web of nuclear proliferation. —The Independent.

London, October 10
Indian officials travelling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Britain and Finland have said that New Delhi is ready to share its information on Pakistan’s clandestine role in providing North Korea with nuclear technology know-how.

Speaking off the record onboard Air India One, shortly before the Indian delegation’s arrival in London on a two-day visit, the officials dismissed Islamabad’s contention that there was no link between the North Korean nuclear test and the A.Q. Khan proliferation network.

They further went on to say: “If asked by authorities in Britain, India will provide available information on Pakistan’s role in nuclear proliferation in North Korea.”

The reaction came even as Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam termed as “regrettable” Pyongyang’s decision to go ahead with the test against the advice of the international community.

“There is absolutely no link between the nuclear test conducted by North Korea and what might have gone on between Dr A.Q. Khan and the North Korean Government. North Korea’s nuclear programme is plutonium-based and Pakistan’s programme is mainly uranium based,” she said.

In an indirect reference to the Indian nuclear tests of May, 1998, Aslam defended Pakistan’s decision to criticise the North Korean nuclear test. — ANI