Tensions have been running high since the secretive North tested an atomic bomb on Monday and then announced it would no longer be bound by the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he was "not aware" of any unusual troop movements in the North, which has around 1.1 million soldiers. South Korea's military numbers 680,000 along with 28,500 US forces in the country.

"I don't think there is a need for us to reinforce our military presence in the South," said Gates, who was en route to a regional security meeting in Singapore.

"I am not aware of any military moves in the North that are out of the ordinary," he said.

But South Korea and the United States put their troops on the Korean peninsula on higher alert on Thursday, and Seoul's defence ministry said forces were keeping a close watch on the land and sea border with the North.

The North warned it might attack US or South Korean ships after the South said it was joining a US-led international effort to stop weapons of mass destruction from spreading.

North Korea had previously said that if South Korea joined the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which the United States launched following the September 11 attacks in 2001, it would regard the move as a declaration of war.

The North has been an active exporter of missiles in recent years. But it is not known if any of its ships have been boarded and searched since the programme began in 2003.

"Should the North Koreans do something extremely provocative militarily, then we have the forces to deal with it," Gates said.

"We have no intention of taking military action against North Korea unless they do something that requires it."

The United States headed a UN command that fought for the South in the 1950-53 war, which ended with a ceasefire instead of a full peace treaty -- meaning the North and South are still technically at war.

North Korea has repeatedly said it needs nuclear weapons to deter any US attack, and six years of international disarmament talks have failed to get Pyongyang to abandon its atomic programmes.

Announcing the atomic test on Monday, the communist North's official media said it would "contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula."

The UN Security Council has been negotiating a response to the test, expected to be a resolution condemning the test, but it was not yet clear if that would include new sanctions on North Korea.

"This is quite a complicated discussion," Britain's UN ambassador John Sawers said after the latest round of talks on Thursday. "We need some time."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said that he opposed punishing Pyongyang "for the sake of punishment alone."

Russia and China, the North's main ally, are among the five nations that have veto power on the Security Council.

China is wary of any moves that could destabilise the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Il, concerned that millions of refugees could then come streaming across the border.

The North has taken a harder line since Kim Jong-Il reportedly suffered a stroke in August, and some analysts suggest he staged the latest nuclear test to shore up his authority as he puts his succession plans in place.

After the Security Council censured its April 5 rocket launch and tightened existing sanctions, the North said it was quitting the disarmament talks and would restart its Yongbyon atomic facility.

Many experts believe, however, that the North is not yet able to deliver a nuclear weapon by missile.

earlier related report
US 'not aware' of troop movement in North Korea
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Friday he was not aware of any unusual troop movements in North Korea and saw no need for an increased US presence in South Korea despite soaring tensions on the peninsula.

"I am not aware of any military moves in the North, that are out of the ordinary at least," Gates said here on route to a regional security meeting in Singapore after Pyongyang tested a nuclear device on Monday.

Gates also said he saw no need to increase US troop levels in South Korea, one of Washington's key allies in the region.

"I don't think there is a need for us to reinforce our military presence in the South," he said.

The United States currently has 28,000 troops stationed on in South Korea.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have risen sharply since North Korea tested a nuclear bomb, believed to be about four times more powerful than the one it detonated in 2006, and followed up by test-firing five short-range missiles.

On Thursday, South Korea and the United States put their troops on higher alert in the Korean peninsula after the North said it was ending a truce in force for half a century and warned of a possible attack.

Gates played down any military escalation to the crisis. "We have no intention of taking military action against North Korea unless they do something that requires it," he said.

Gates said that North Korea's actions had been "very provocative, aggressive, accompanied by a very aggressive rhetoric," and he issued a warning against any military moves.

"Should the North Koreans do something extremely provocative militarily, then we have the forces to deal with it," he said.

But the diplomatic fall out from the North Korean test seem ready to continue, as key regional players discuss sanctions against the hermetic Stalinist state.

At the United Nations, ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus South Korea and Japan discussed how to censure the North for its nuclear test, but apparently without making any breakthrough.

Gates said the international community had a "range of options" that include "principally economic and diplomatic measures.

"I think at the same time it may create some opportunities for multilateral cooperation to try and persuade the North Koreans to change that behavior."

Yet "whatever responses there are," Gates said, "they need to be multilateral, preferably under the auspices of the UN but perhaps there are other means as well."

He said that China, which had often been reticent about clamping down hard on North Korea for fear of destabilizing its neighbor, had shown signs it was in agreement with the United States.

"Just based on the what the Chinese government has said publicly, they're clearly pretty unhappy about the nuclear testing in particular and they weren't very happy about the missile test either," Gates said.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News