U.S. seeks diplomatic unity on DPRK's possible nuclear test

The United States is making diplomatic efforts to combat a possible nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Wednesday.

"We've been continuing to engage with our six-party partners, as well as others in Asia and Security Council members," Casey said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill reached out to their diplomatic counterparts in Asia and Europe to send "a strong and unified signal ... that these kinds of threats are certainly not acceptable," the spokesman said.

The U.S. made a flurry of diplomatic efforts after the DPRK announced Tuesday that it will undertake an unprecedented nuclear test.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, DPRK said "the field of scientific research of the DPRK will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

But the statement did not give specific date or location of the upcoming test.

DPRK "will never use nuclear weapons first but strictly prohibit any threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear transfer," the statement said.

Pyongyang also affirmed that it would strive to "realize the denuclearization of the (Korean) peninsula and give impetus to the worldwide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons."

The statement accused the United States of adopting a hostile policy towards the DPRK, saying that's why it must conduct a nuclear test as a way of bolstering war deterrent.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday that a nuclear test by the DPRK would be a "very provocative" act.

Source: Xinhua