Japan said that if the test is confirmed, it would push for a tough resolution at the UN Security Council.
TOKYO: Japan said on Monday that a North Korean nuclear test would be a "grave threat" if confirmed and that it would push for a tough resolution at the UN Security Council.
"If it is proven, it will be a grave threat to stability in Northeast Asia and we will file a strong protest with North Korea," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman.
"The UN Security Council has just issued a chairman's statement against a test, reflecting one strong voice of the international community. If it is proven that North Korea has even ignored that, we will have no choice but to file a stern protest," he told reporters after an emergency meeting.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso said he held a three-way teleconference with his counterparts in the United States and South Korea.
Aso said that if the test was confirmed, Japan would call for a UN Security Council that invokes the UN Charter's Chapter VII, which authorizes wide-ranging economic sanctions or, theoretically, military action.
North Korea's main ally China, which holds veto power, opposed invoking Chapter VII in July when the Security Council passed Resolution 1695 slapping limited sanctions on North Korea for test-firing seven missiles.
"In terms of what we couldn't have in Resolution 1695, we could start with Chapter VII. There are many other possibilities," Aso told reporters.
Japan is particularly sensitive to threats from North Korea, which fired a missile over its main island in 1998. The two countries have never established diplomatic relations.
The test coincided with a trip by Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a sworn hardliner on North Korea, to China and South Korea to ease regional tension and forge a united front on North Korea.
"We have to collect and analyse information by keeping contact with the United States and China," Abe told reporters shortly after he arrived in Seoul and was informed about the nuclear test report.
"I am going to meet South Korean Prime Minister Han Myeong-Sook now," said Abe, who will also meet South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun later in the day.
His government set up a task force to deal with the crisis.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}