North Korea threatens nuclear test

TOKYO – North Korea’s neighbours rushed yesterday to forge a common front following Pyongyang’s threat of a nuclear test, announcing a series of summits over the next week to coordinate policy and soothe frayed relations.

In a major breakthrough, the government of Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, announced it would hold back-to-back summits with China and South Korea on Sunday and Monday in a drive to repair damaged ties with its neighbours. South Korea also announced President Roh Moo-hyun would hold a separate summit in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other officials October 13 to find ways of persuading Pyongyang not to go ahead with its threat, issued Tuesday, to detonate a weapon.The apparent effort to work together contrasts with the fractured reaction to North Korea’s barrage of missile tests in July, in which China and South Korea accused Japan of overreacting by pushing for sanctions on Pyongyang.The announcement of Tokyo’s two meetings with its neighbours was a victory for Abe, a nationalist who came to office last week with a program of both making Japan a major player on the world stage and bolstering ties with the rest of Asia.”We intend to move forward in a future-looking relationship with our important neighbours China and South Korea by expending every effort to engage in dialogue and working closely together with them,” Abe said in parliament Wednesday before the announcement.Abe was scheduled to travel to Beijing on Sunday to meet with China’s President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, in Japan and China’s first summit since 2001.On Monday, Abe was scheduled for a meeting with South Korea’s President Roh in Seoul – the first time Roh has met with a Japanese leader in nearly a year.North Korea will be a prime order of business.A nuclear test would be a first for the reclusive communist regime, confirming its claim to possess atomic bombs and greatly raising tensions in an already jittery region.On Wednesday, Roh called for a “cool-headed and stern” response to the test threat, while Abe declared that Tokyo could not accept such a test.China, a North Korean ally, appealed to Pyongyang for calm and restraint.A united front on North Korea will not be easy, however, since the three nations come to the table with different views and interests.Japan, the top US ally in East Asia, has been the most hard-line against Pyongyang.The North Korean regime is virulently anti-Japanese, and fired a test missile over northern Japan in 1998.Nampa-APSouth Korea also announced President Roh Moo-hyun would hold a separate summit in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other officials October 13 to find ways of persuading Pyongyang not to go ahead with its threat, issued Tuesday, to detonate a weapon.The apparent effort to work together contrasts with the fractured reaction to North Korea’s barrage of missile tests in July, in which China and South Korea accused Japan of overreacting by pushing for sanctions on Pyongyang.The announcement of Tokyo’s two meetings with its neighbours was a victory for Abe, a nationalist who came to office last week with a program of both making Japan a major player on the world stage and bolstering ties with the rest of Asia.”We intend to move forward in a future-looking relationship with our important neighbours China and South Korea by expending every effort to engage in dialogue and working closely together with them,” Abe said in parliament Wednesday before the announcement.Abe was scheduled to travel to Beijing on Sunday to meet with China’s President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, in Japan and China’s first summit since 2001.On Monday, Abe was scheduled for a meeting with South Korea’s President Roh in Seoul – the first time Roh has met with a Japanese leader in nearly a year.North Korea will be a prime order of business.A nuclear test would be a first for the reclusive communist regime, confirming its claim to possess atomic bombs and greatly raising tensions in an already jittery region.On Wednesday, Roh called for a “cool-headed and stern” response to the test threat, while Abe declared that Tokyo could not accept such a test.China, a North Korean ally, appealed to Pyongyang for calm and restraint.A united front on North Korea will not be easy, however, since the three nations come to the table with different views and interests.Japan, the top US ally in East Asia, has been the most hard-line against Pyongyang.The North Korean regime is virulently anti-Japanese, and fired a test missile over northern Japan in 1998.Nampa-AP