"This trip is an opportunity to reaffirm our reciprocal obligations," Rice said.

The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution imposing "unprecedented sanctions on the government of North Korea, and it requires every nation in the world to uphold them," she said.

The top US diplomat said her week-long mission will focus on ensuring the fullest possible implementation of the sanctions resolution, which bans trade with North Korea related to dangerous weapons and calls for the inspection of cargo to and from the impoverished state.

"As North Korea scorns the international community, we will collectively isolate North Korea from the benefits of participation in that community," she said.

But Rice added that she would also be reassuring key allies South Korea and Japan that the United States "has both the will and capability to meet the full range of our security and deterrent commitments".

Asked about the apparent reluctance of China, North Korea's long-time ally and key trading partner, to aggressively inspect cargo crossing their long land border, Rice said the US expects "every member of the international community to fully implement all aspects of this resolution".

earlier related report
Rice rallies partners on NKorea sanctions
Washington (AFP) Oct 16 - The United States called Monday on its partners in the confrontation with North Korea to honor their "obligations" to punish the Stalinist regime after US intelligence confirmed that Pyongyang had carried out its first nuclear test.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would urge Japan, South Korea, China and Russia during visits this week to "share the burdens as well as the benefits" of forcing North Korea to back away from its nuclear arms program.

The top US diplomat said the goal of her weeklong tour would be to ensure full enactment of UN Security Council resolution 1718, that was adopted Saturday and imposes "unprecedented sanctions" on North Korea in a bid to force the reclusive regime back into multi-party disarmament negotiations.

The resolution bans trade with North Korea related to dangerous weapons, calls for a freeze on financial assets and imposes a travel ban on those linked to the country's nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs.

But the most hotly contested measure is a call for inspection of cargo to and from the impoverished state, aimed at preventing its cash-strapped government selling material for an atomic bomb to terrorists or rogue states.

"As North Korea scorns the international community, we will collectively isolate North Korea from the benefits of participation in that community," Rice said of the sanctions regime.

Both Rice and the White House insisted they were confident that China, North Korea's major ally and trading partner and a traditional opponent of sanctions, would enact the UN resolution.

"I am not concerned that the Chinese are going to turn their backs on their obligations," Rice said, noting that Beijing had voted for the UN resolution.

White House spokesman Tony Snow for his part said there were already signs China has begun inspections at its long land border with North Korea.

"We've also been hearing that the Chinese are, in fact, examining things that are crossing the border," he said.

Rice acknowledged fears of China and South Korea that aggressive search and seizure operations against North Korean cargo could spark a conflict, calling them a "natural concern".

She said her talks in the various Asian capitals and Moscow would include detailed discussions of "mechanisms" for carrying out the interdiction operating without "ratcheting up" tensions.

Shortly before Rice spoke to reporters about her trip, the US intelligence establishment said tests of air samples had confirmed that North Korea conducted a nuclear test on October 9.

But the Director of National Intelligence determined that the test explosion had an unusually low yield of less that one kiloton, an outcome that could indicate the nuclear detonation may have partially failed.

Amid concerns Pyongyang could carry out another test to prove its nuclear capability, Rice warned that such a move "would further deepen the isolation of North Korea, and I hope they would not take such a provocative act."

In light of the enhanced threat represented by North Korea, Rice said her trip would also aim to reassure leaders in Tokyo and Seoul that Washington would stand by its commitment to help defend the two nations.

"The United States has both the will and capability to meet the full range of our security and deterrent commitments," she said.

While primarily waving the stick of sanctions, Rice also held out for North Korea the carrot of a return to six-party disarmament talks involving the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

"A positive path remains open to (North Korea) through the six-party talks," she said.

"We are prepared to return to the talks without precondition" with the goal being to end Pyongyang's nuclear program "irreversibly and verifiably", she said.

The offer was a far softer approach than that taken by Washington against Iran, which is also facing possible sanctions for ignoring a UN demand it suspend the enrichment of uranium.

The US is insisting that Tehran verifiably end its enrichment activities, which can be subverted to produce material for nuclear weapons, as a precondition for talks on ending Iran's diplomatic isolation.

North Korea's number-two leader, meanwhile, said Monday that his country is under a growing threat of nuclear attack from the United States.

"The security of our socialist country is seriously threatened by the daily-growing threat of a nuclear war from the US and its vicious moves to isolate and stifle DPRK," Kim Yong-Nam also said in a televised speech.

earlier related report
China clamping down on North Korean border: White House
Washington (AFP) Oct 16 - China has begun inspections at its border with North Korea in line with UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after its apparent nuclear test, despite earlier reluctance, the US said Monday.

"We've also been hearing that the Chinese are, in fact, examining things that are crossing the border," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

"Apparently, they're inspecting," he said.

Earlier Monday, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told CNN that China was clamping down on trade.

"We have some indications that the Chinese are also stopping trucks and inspecting them across that 800-mile border this morning," Burns said.

"That's a sign that China is going to implement the resolution it signed up to," he said, before adding that Washington and its allies would continue pressing Beijing to honor the US Security Council sanctions resolution adopted on Saturday.

Asked about the extent of Chinese inspections, Snow withheld judgement.

"They're 72 hours into an agreement," he said. "The parties have committed to fulfilling its obligations. Let's just see what happens, all right?"

Snow stressed that due to their common borders and relationships with North Korea, China and South Korea would shoulder much of the responsibilty to implement the sanctions.

"You understand that the Chinese and the South Koreans, by virute of their extensive ties with the government of North Korea, are, in fact, going to have the most leverage, and therefore, they're going to have some significant responsibilities, and they know that," he said.

"China is an equal partner in this and they have their responsibilities and ambassador (John) Bolton made it clear," he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be travelling to Beijing this week as part of a tour aimed at ensuring the sanctions are applied. Burns said she would be pressing China's top leaders on the issue.

"Secretary Rice will be in Beijing later this week to discuss this personally with President Hu Jintao and others in the Chinese leadership," he said.

The UN resolution bans trade with North Korea related to dangerous weapons and the export of heavy conventional weapons to the Stalinist state, calls for a freeze on financial assets, and imposes a travel ban on those linked to the country's nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programmes.

But the most hotly contested measure is a call for inspection of cargo to and from the impoverished state, aimed at preventing its cash-strapped government from selling material for an atomic bomb to terrorists or rogue states.

Shortly after the UN adopted the measures, though, China's ambassador to the world body said his government did not favor inspections of cargo going in and out of North Korea.

Burns brushed aside the diplomat's remarks, suggesting he possibly "misspoke".

"China is going to have to implement this resolution, it was unanimous," he said.

Rice is due to leave Tuesday for Japan and will also visit South Korea and Russia on the week-long trip, US officials said.

earlier related report
Japan may shift warships from Indian Ocean to NKorea
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 16 - Japan's defense chief suggested Monday that the country could pull warships from the Indian Ocean, where they assist US operations in Afghanistan, to waters near North Korea. Defense Agency chief Fumio Kyuma said Japan, which is officially pacifist, could amend the mission drafted under special legislation to allow the deployment to the Indian Ocean.

"The priority is to defend our country," Kyuma told a parliamentary committee.

"If the situation (related to North Korea) becomes more serious, it is possible that we could amend the basic mission plan," Kyuma said.

Japan has dispatched supply ships and one destroyer to the Indian Ocean to give logistical support to US-led troops.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Sunday called for Japan to take part in potential US searches of North Korean ships under Saturday's UN Security Council resolution that condemned Pyongyang's nuclear test.

Japan passed the law on the Indian Ocean mission after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which triggered the US military operation that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hawk on North Korea who supports a more active military role for Japan, has approved extending the legislation for another year.

The mission was initially the most far-reaching military deployment for Japan since World War II.

Abe's predecessor as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, later went further by sending a reconstruction mission to Iraq, the first time since the war that Japanese soldiers had been in a country where fighting was under way.

earlier related report
South Korea Pledges To Uphold Sanctions But Warns Of Risk Of Clashes
Seoul (AFP) Oct 16 - South Korea warned Monday of the danger of taking too tough a line against North Korea as President Roh Moo-Hyun came under fire for his perceived soft response to the North's declared nuclear test. Presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-Young called the nuclear programme illegal and "a grave threat" to international non-proliferation efforts.

"The government will persistently push for the dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons," he added.

"But it is not desirable if such efforts to keep the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons amplify security risks and economic instability," Yoon told a press briefing, as quoted by Yonhap news agency.

He was speaking before a visit Thursday by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on an Asian tour to press for tight enforcement of United Nations sanctions agreed Saturday.

South Korea is so far refusing to join any international effort to search ships to or from the North, as authorised by the sanctions, for fear of sparking an armed clash with its communist neighbour.

Officials have also said two inter-Korean projects which earn the North tens of millions of dollars will not be closed down.

Many here see the test announced October 9 as proof that President Roh Moo-Hyun's "sunshine policy" of engaging the North has failed. They complain that aid and the proceeds of economic projects were used to develop an atomic weapon now threatening the South.

Newspapers lambasted Roh and his administration.

"The government and the ruling party are advised to please behave like grown-ups," the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest-circulation daily, said in a pugnacious editorial.

"Despite the emergency of having a nuclear-armed enemy just dozens of kilometres away from Seoul, they keep acting childishly," it said.

Cracks in the global consensus were already emerging as the United States publicly pressed China to enforce the UN resolution, including inspections of cargo at sea, which Beijing had opposed.

After China, South Korea is the main provider of food and aid to the North, where many South Koreans have relatives that they have not seen since the peninsula was divided six decades ago.

Despite those ties, polls show that nearly 80 percent of South Koreans believe Roh's carrot-and-stick approach, aimed at coaxing Pyongyang's isolated regime back into the international fold, should now be abandoned.

"The government should drastically change its way of thinking," the JoongAng Daily said, urging Roh to abandon the Mount Kumgang tourism project and the Kaesong industrial complex.

"If the government continues these projects, there will be no real profit for them. It would instead bring conflict with the United States and raise criticism of not upholding the resolution," it said.

Christopher Hill, the US chief nuclear negotiator with the North, will arrive in Seoul Tuesday.

He said before his departure that the US would do all it could to block North Korea gaining financing and technology to further its missile and nuclear programmes.

However the United States, South Korea's main ally, also came under increasing fire.

A new poll reported by the Korea Times found that 43 percent of South Koreans blame Washington for the test, with only 37.3 percent blaming the North Koreans who actually carried it out.

The results appeared to be a sign of growing doubt about US commitment to achieving a diplomatic end to the crisis instead of wanting simply to topple Pyongyang's communist leadership -- as the North claims.

"The isolationist regime's sense of the US security threat may be overblown but not entirely groundless," the paper said. "So far, the Republican administration's North Korea policy has been a total failure."

earlier related report
SKorean leader under fire over handling of North
Seoul (AFP) Oct 16 - South Korea's embattled president was hit with new criticism Monday over his handling of North Korea as doubts surfaced about whether new UN sanctions against Pyongyang would be strongly enforced.

Seoul came out in strong support of the UN Security Council's vote Saturday to impose sanctions on the communist North after it announced it had tested a nuclear weapon for the first time.

But many here see the test as proof that President Roh Moo-Hyun's "sunshine policy" of engaging the North has failed, and complain that millions in aid money was instead used to develop an atomic weapon now threatening the South.

Newspapers lambasted Roh after his government said that, despite the crisis, it would continue with cross-border industrial and tourism projects which have become a key source of cash for the impoverished North.

"The government and the ruling party are advised to please behave like grown-ups," the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest-circulation daily, said in a pugnacious editorial.

"Despite the emergency of having a nuclear-armed enemy just dozens of kilometres away from Seoul, they keep acting childishly," it said.

South Korea has repeatedly said it will not tolerate a nuclear-armed North, and the government quickly issued a statement underlining its willingness to implement the sanctions.

Yet Roh's government is clearly hoping to avoid confrontation over the sanctions, which the North previously warned would be tantamount to a "declaration of war."

Cracks in the global consensus were already emerging as the United States publicly pressed China to enforce the UN resolution, including inspections of cargo in and out of the North that Beijing had opposed.

After China, South Korea is the main provider of food and aid to the North, where many South Koreans have relatives that they have not seen since the peninsula was divided six decades ago.

Despite those ties, polls show that nearly 80 percent of South Koreans believe Roh's carrot-and-stick approach, aimed at coaxing Pyongyang's isolated regime back into the international fold, should now be abandoned.

"The government should drastically change its way of thinking," the JoongAng Daily said, urging Roh to abandon the joint projects in the North -- Mount Kumgang, a tourism site, and the Kaesong industrial complex.

"If the government continues these projects, there will be no real profit for them. It would instead bring conflict with the United States and raise criticism of not upholding the resolution," it said.

The United States, one of South Korea's main allies, is also coming under increasing fire here.

A new poll by the Korea Times found that 43 percent of South Koreans blame Washington for the test, with only 37.3 percent blaming the North Koreans who actually carried it out.

The results appeared to be a sign of growing doubt about US commitment to achieving a diplomatic end to the crisis instead of wanting simply to topple Pyongyang's communist leadership -- as the North claims.

"The isolationist regime's sense of the US security threat may be overblown but not entirely groundless," the paper said. "So far, the Republican administration's North Korea policy has been a total failure."

A small group of anti-US activists protested near the US embassy on Monday, accusing the Security Council of "collaborating" with the United States against the North, Yonhap news agency reported.

A flurry of diplomatic talks were set to hammer out how the UN resolution would be implemented.

Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator in stalled six-nation negotiations with Pyongyang over its nuclear programme, was due in Tokyo later Monday before heading to South Korea on Tuesday.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon will host US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Thursday.

Seoul's Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan was to meet later Monday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev.

earlier related report
Japan may shift warships from Indian Ocean to NKorea
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 16 - Japan's defense chief suggested Monday that the country could pull warships from the Indian Ocean, where they assist US operations in Afghanistan, to waters near North Korea. Defense Agency chief Fumio Kyuma said Japan, which is officially pacifist, could amend the mission drafted under special legislation to allow the deployment to the Indian Ocean.

"The priority is to defend our country," Kyuma told a parliamentary committee.

"If the situation (related to North Korea) becomes more serious, it is possible that we could amend the basic mission plan," Kyuma said.

Japan has dispatched supply ships and one destroyer to the Indian Ocean to give logistical support to US-led troops.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Sunday called for Japan to take part in potential US searches of North Korean ships under Saturday's UN Security Council resolution that condemned Pyongyang's nuclear test.

Japan passed the law on the Indian Ocean mission after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which triggered the US military operation that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hawk on North Korea who supports a more active military role for Japan, has approved extending the legislation for another year.

The mission was initially the most far-reaching military deployment for Japan since World War II.

Abe's predecessor as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, later went further by sending a reconstruction mission to Iraq, the first time since the war that Japanese soldiers had been in a country where fighting was under way.

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