The UN Security Council today urged North Korea not to carry out a planned nuclear-weapon test and warned Pyongyang of unspecified consequences if it did.
The warning, in a formal statement adopted unanimously, came three days after North Korea's announced it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions."
US officials have said the reclusive state might detonate a device as early as this weekend, and a Chinese source said Pyongyang planned to carry out the test deep inside an abandoned mine.
A nuclear test would "jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond" and "bring universal condemnation by the international community," said the Security Council statement, read at a formal meeting by Japan's UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this month's council president.
It warned North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations."
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
Japan, which has satellites that can monitor North Korea's actions, and the United States had wanted a stronger statement threatening punitive action. The Security Council has already imposed an embargo -- on July 15 -- on dangerous weapons and related materials going or leaving North Korea.
"We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device," US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.
"And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test."