N Korean 'nuclear test likely' unless talks resume

South Korea's Unification Minister says North Korea is highly likely to go ahead with its threatened nuclear test unless six-party disarmament talks can be restarted.

Lee Jong-Seok told a Parliamentary Committee there were no definite signs of an impending test in north of the border, but North Korea was likely to conduct one if the talks do not resume.

Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung told the same hearing the Government assumes the North is likely to make good its threat.

"We are taking measures on the assumption that North Korea is more likely (than not) to conduct a nuclear test," Mr Yoon said.

"We are working to come up with counter measures with significant weight on the possibility" of a test, he added, without elaborating.

The communist state's Foreign Ministry announced yesterday it would conduct a nuclear test at an unspecified date to bolster its deterrent against what it called threats of US aggression and against sanctions.

Mr Lee told the televised hearing that South Korea believes the statement "is aimed at pressuring the United States to change its stance" towards the North.

"However, (the government) believes there is a high possibility of a nuclear test if efforts to resume the six-party talks end in failure," he said.

China has hosted several rounds of the six-party negotiations on ending the North's nuclear program in return for economic benefits and security guarantees.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia are also involved.

The North has boycotted the talks since November.

It says it will not return unless the US ends financial sanctions imposed in September last year on a Macau bank accused of laundering cash for the regime in North Korea.

The US says the action against the Macau bank is a law enforcement issue and separate from the six-party forum.

Talks with Japan

The planned nuclear test is expected to dominate talks between Japan's new Prime Minister and regional neighbours early next week.

Shinzo Abe will travel to Beijing and Seoul for the summit meetings.

Mr Abe has been a hardliner on dealings with North Korea, and the announcement the country plans to test a nuclear weapon will give him a timely topic for discussion with the leaders of China and South Korea.

Mr Abe will travel to Beijing on Sunday, and meet president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jibao, before meeting South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun in Seoul on Monday.

It will be the first time a Japanese prime minister has travelled to Beijing since 2001 and marks a diplomatic thaw, after ties were strained over visits by former prime minister Junichiro Koziumi to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo.

-AFP/ABC