DPRK has no plans 'at present' for nuclear test

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Saturday it has no plans to conduct a nuclear test "at present", an announcement which analysts said was made under increasing pressure from the international community.

The Republic of Korea tried to "rattle the nerves of the DPRK in a bid to cause it to conduct a nuclear test, though such a thing is not planned at present", a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the country's official news agency KCNA.

This is Pyongyang's second refutation in a month of the alleged nuclear test plan, and analysts said the two announcements show the mounting pressure on Pyongyang from the international community.

Since the DPRK's failed satellite launch in mid-April, the Pentagon has issued strong warnings to Pyongyang over its nuclear program, and the DPRK has also started to care more about the reactions of major players toward the Korean Peninsula denuclearization issue, said Zhang Lian gui, an expert on Korean Peninsula studies at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The DPRK conducted nuclear tests in October 2006 and May 2009, and received sanctions from the UN Security Council.

The DPRK launched its planned "earth observation" satellite on April 13, using a long-range rocket, in a bid to mark the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang later confirmed that the satellite failed to enter orbit.

Following the launch, which drew condemnation from the UN Security Council, the United States said it had canceled a food aid deal with the DPRK, accusing it of using the satellite launch as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

Some experts, government officials and media reports have said the DPRK appears to be ready to conduct a third nuclear test and is only waiting for a political decision.

On May 19, a declaration made by the Group of Eight summit in the United States urged Pyongyang to abandon all nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible manner" after its failed launch of the satellite in April.

Responding to the declaration, the DPRK said on May 22 that it had no plans to conduct nuclear tests alongside its peaceful satellite development program.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states have agreed that dialogue and consultations are the only proper choices for settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, President Hu Jintao recently said in a written interview ahead of the 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the SCO.

The SCO hopes to promote the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party Talks, so as to safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia, Hu said.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.