Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea expressed its ``deeply serious concern and regret'' over North Korea's announcement it will conduct a nuclear bomb test and told Kim Jong Il's regime to withdraw its plans.

``We reiterate our policy that we will not condone North Korea possessing nuclear weapons, and urge North Korea to cancel its plans to hold a nuclear test,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu Ho said today in Seoul. South Korea, still technically at war with North Korea after their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace agreement, has raised its security level.

North Korea's plans announced yesterday are ``extremely regrettable,'' Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today in Tokyo. ``If North Korea conducts a nuclear test it would be outrageous.'' The U.S. said such a test would ``pose an unacceptable threat'' to the world. China appealed to North Korea to exercise ``calm and restraint.''

The U.S., Japan and South Korea have been working with China and Russia to try to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. North Korea agreed at six-nation talks in September last year to abandon the program in return for energy and food aid and security guarantees. Talks in November ended without agreement.

U.S. Sanctions

North Korea ``will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed,'' the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday carried by the official Korea Central News Agency. The statement didn't give a date for the test.

The U.S.'s ``increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean peninsula,'' the ministry said.

North Korea has refused to return to the six-party talks until the U.S. removes economic sanctions it imposed last October over allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting by North Korean companies.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Aug. 25 it will treat all financial transactions involving North Korea as suspect and subject to sanctions while the nation develops nuclear weapons. The line between licit and illicit North Korean money is `nearly invisible,'' the department said at the time.

``There is a high possibility that North Korea will conduct a nuclear test if efforts toward restarting six-nation talks fizzle,'' South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong Seok told lawmakers. ``I get a strong impression that the announcement was aimed at pressuring the U.S.''

Trading Partner

South Korea's trade with North Korea reached $1.1 billion last year compared with $697 million in 2004, the largest trading partner after China. South Korea's aid to North Korea last year reached $365 million, according to the Unification Ministry.

North Korea, with a population of 23 million, has depended on outside aid since the 1990s, when more than a million people may have died from famine because of years of flooding, drought and economic mismanagement.

Japan's Abe will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Oct. 8 and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in Seoul Oct. 9, to discuss ways to resolve tensions over North Korea, the South Korean and Japanese governments said today.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing talked on the phone today and agreed to make every effort to prevent North Korea from holding a nuclear test, South Korean Vice Minister Yu Myung Hwan said at a briefing.

Nuclear Weapons

North Korea may have produced as many as six nuclear weapons from spent fuel, U.S. officials estimated in 2004, according to a Congressional Research Service report on the country's atomic arms program dated May 25 this year.

A report by the Institute for Science and International Security on June 26 said North Korea may have enough plutonium to make as many as 13 nuclear weapons.

The six-nation negotiations on North Korea's program have coincided with a nuclear dispute involving Iran, which has defied United Nations demands to end uranium enrichment.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton called the North Korean announcement ``a provocative act'' and told China to pressure the North Koreans to call off such a test. ``The Chinese have the only really bilateral relationship with North Korea that could turn this off,'' he said yesterday.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya, while saying his government wouldn't ``welcome'' a nuclear test, said the six-party talks are a better venue in which to discuss the issue.

China wants the parties involved to reach a solution ``through dialogue and negotiations,'' Liu Jianchao, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, said today in a statement.

The U.S. ``will continue to work with its allies and partners to discourage such a reckless action and will respond appropriately,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday in Washington.

Missile Tests

North Korea announced on Feb. 10 last year it had made nuclear weapons after extracting plutonium by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants.

The country drew international condemnation after testing seven missiles on July 5, including a Taepodong-2 that U.S. officials say may be able to reach Alaska.

The Security Council approved a resolution July 15 demanding North Korea suspend its missile program and barring it from acquiring or selling missile technology. Japan and Australia imposed financial sanctions against North Korea last month in line with the resolution.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heejin Koo in Seoul at hjkoo@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 4, 2006 02:35 EDT