UN's Ban says North Korea cannot go on challenging the world

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned North Korea on Monday that a further nuclear test would be a provocative measure and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 2094.
   
"The DPRK (North Korea) cannot go on like this, confronting and challenging the authority of the Security Council and directly challenging the whole international community," Ban said in a news conference in the Hague, according to a transcript sent by the United Nations office in Geneva.
   
He said he was aware of reports of possible preparations for a nuclear test but had no specific information.

Movement around an atomic test site in North Korea indicates the reclusive state may stage another nuclear test, a South Korean minister said on Monday, an act that would further drive up tensions on the Korean peninsula.           

The comments, made in response to a newspaper report, followed unusually harsh rebukes of North Korea at the weekend by China, Pyongyang's sole diplomatic and financial ally.                      

Speculation had been building that North Korea might carry out a missile test in the near future.                      

North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear test, the country's third, prompted tougher U.N. sanctions that have angered Pyongyang. It has since warned of war with the South and the United States.                     

"I can only say there are such signs," South Korea's Unification Minister, Ryoo Kihi-jae, told a parliamentary committee. He declined to give details on grounds that the matter was "intelligence related".                          

The JoongAng Ilbo daily, quoting a senior South Korean government official, had earlier reported that movement of manpower and vehicles at the Punggye-ri test site was similar to that observed before the February blast.                    

North Korean authorities told embassies in Pyongyang they could not guarantee their safety from Wednesday - after saying conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month. No diplomats appear to have left the North Korean capital.                    

A South Korean government official, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said a North Korean general had told diplomats at the weekend that the situation remained "grave". But he made no mention of Pyongyang's appeal to consider leaving by Wednesday.                     

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul later this week and the North holds celebrations and possibly military demonstrations next Monday to mark the birth date of its founder, Kim Il-Sung - grandfather of the current leader, 30-year-old Kim Jong-un.                                   

South Korea's Defence Ministry was unruffled by the notion of a new test, saying it had been long prepared for one.   

"That has not changed at this point. Vehicles and people can come and go because there are several facilities around the nuclear test site," spokesman Kim Min-seok told a briefing.            

Pyongyang has moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, according to media reports last week.     


REUTERS