N.Korea issues new threat

SEOUL (Reuters) -

North Korea threatened on Friday to take "stronger physical actions" after Japan imposed punitive measures in response to its barrage of missile tests and pushed for broader sanctions at the

United Nations.

Japan introduced a draft

U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday that would clamp down on missile-related financial and technology transactions with North Korea, but it was unclear whether veto-holding members China and Russia would approve the step.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said if the draft is put to a vote "there would be no unity" in the council in sending a message to North Korea. But he did not say whether China would use its veto power to kill the resolution or abstain and let the measure go through.

"All possibilities are on the table," Wang told reporters at the United Nations in New York.

Japan's revised draft, co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and France, says that no nation can procure missiles or missile related "items, materials goods and technology" from North Korea, or transfer financial resources to the isolated Communist country's dangerous weapons programs.

China has used its veto only four times in the Security Council, all on issues related to Taiwan. Analysts say Beijing does not want action that could risk bringing down the Pyongyang government and sending refugees swarming across their border.

NORTH KOREA 'RED LINES'

In another sign of diplomatic differences,

South Korea, which also fears a catastrophic collapse of the secretive, communist regime, said it would hold ministerial talks with the North as scheduled next week. It would be the first high-level contact with Pyongyang since the tests on Wednesday.

Japan has banned a North Korean ferry from entering its ports for six months as part of a package of initial sanctions, which brought a new threat from North Korea on Friday.

"This may force us to take stronger physical actions," Kyodo news agency quoted Song Il-ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalization talks with Japan, as saying.

President Bush said on Friday diplomacy on North Korea was "slow and cumbersome" and will take more time.

Bush, who previously has said the United States will keep the military option open when it comes to North Korea, refrained from repeating that standard phrase when asked about it during an hour-long news conference.

But he did say it was time to set "red lines" meaning actions which the international community would not tolerate and which would prompt international action against Pyongyang.

North Korea considers sanctions against it as a declaration of war, its deputy ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency late on Friday.

NO SIGN OF LAUNCH

North Korea has vowed to carry out more launches and has said it will use force if the international community tries to stop it.

But the impoverished regime, which experts say has enough nuclear material to make nine atomic bombs, does not have a second Taepodong-2 missile on a launch site, a U.S. defense official said on Friday, countering reports Pyongyang may have moved a long-range missile into place.

"If you are asking me if there's another Taepodong-2 that's on a launch pad somewhere ... no," the official said on condition of anonymity.

North Korea has for years been trying to draw Washington into direct talks, seeking a grand deal to end the technical state of war on the peninsula that has persisted since the 1950-53 Korea War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace treaty.

But Bush said on Friday he was "not going to be caught in the trap of sitting at the table alone."

Bush wants North Korea to resume "six-party talks" with Russia, China, the United States, Japan and South Korea aimed at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

In February, 2005, North Korea said it possessed nuclear weapons. Since then, it has threatened several times to bolster its nuclear arsenal to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility.

(Additional reporting by Evelyn Leopold at the UN, Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim in SEOUL, Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO and Steve Holland in WASHINGTON)