Next step N-missile: N Korea to US

Seoul: A North Korean official warned that the Communist nation could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.

"We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," the unnamed official said on Monday, according to Yonhap report from Beijing. "That depends on how the US will act."

Reacting to the statement US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said: "North Korea's reported threat to fire a nuclear missile is an attempt to bully Washington into face-to-face talks with Pyongyang."

"This is the way North Korea typically negotiates, by threat and intimidation," he said. "It's worked for them before. It's not going to work this time," he added.

Yonhap didn't say how or where it contacted the official, why no name was given or why it delayed reporting until Tuesday.

"The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the US across the negotiating table," the official said. "What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system."

The official also dismissed moves at the UN Security Council to sanction the impoverished nation over its reported nuclear test.

"We have lost enough. Sanctions can never be a solution," the official said. "We still have a willingness to give up nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks as well. It's possible whenever the US takes corresponding measures."

The official didn't elaborate on what the corresponding measures would be.

But one of them is believed to be a long-standing North Korean demand that Washington lift financial restrictions imposed on the Communist regime for its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

The world lined up against

North Korea on Monday for staging a nuclear test denounced even by key allies.

President Bush called it "a threat to international peace and security," and the UN Security Council weighed severe sanctions to punish the impoverished Communist nation.

There was no talk of military action. But the Security Council quickly condemned North Korea's decision to flout a UN appeal to cancel the test after the reclusive regime announced it had set off an underground atomic explosion.