US could consider all responses in event of NK nuke test

The U.S. government on Thursday said it could consider all responses if North Korea conducts a nuclear test.

On if South Korea and the U.S. could launch a preemptive strike on the North, U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told a regular news briefing, “Well, obviously we don’t take anything off the table. We never do. But we are focused on the path laid out in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2087, which is to continue to exert economic pressure if, in fact, the North Koreans don’t change their course.”

Commenting on media reports that Washington was considering putting Pyongyang back on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, she said, “The terrorist listing of (North Korea) had to do with terrorist activity. The nuclear activity is handled through the six-party talks process."

The Washington Free Beacon, an online daily, also said North Korea is likely to test-launch a new mobile inter-continental ballistic missile, or ICBM, through an upcoming nuclear test. “U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said the North Koreans are expected to test fire either a new KN-08 road-mobile ICBM -- capable of reaching parts of the United States -- or a new medium-range advanced missile called the Musudan, also built on hard-to-detect mobile launchers,” the report said. In April last year, North Korea unveiled six KN-08 road-mobile ICBMs in a military parade. The missiles were mounted on mobile transporter-launchers that were believed to be Chinese-made.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich urged the North to refrain from conducting a nuclear test, saying Pyongyang is “is a United Nations member and is supposed to meet in full measure the demands of appropriate U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

North Korea, however, reiterated its threat of a “real war” after South Korea’s military chief said earlier this week that Seoul could launch a preemptive strike if Pyongyang shows “clear intent” to use a nuclear weapon.

mickey@donga.com