North Korea may face more sanctions after raising the nuclear ante in Asia with an atomic test, although an outbreak of war appears unlikely now, officials and analysts said on Monday. While North Korea’s announcement had a generally muted impact on global markets, the reaction from governments around the world was loud and clear. The White House called it a “provocative act, in defiance of the will of the international community”. Japan, which many analysts saw as most directly threatened by any North Korean nuclear test, said it would seek UN Security Council talks and would also weigh its own harsh measures. China, the closest thing North Korea has to an ally, denounced the test as “brazen”, in an unusually swift and blunt reaction from the foreign ministry. Chinese analysts said Beijing was likely to go along with international sanctions.
The UN Security Council, with ChinaÂ’s agreement, had earlier imposed an embargo on dangerous weapons and related materials going or leaving North Korea after it test-fired a volley of missiles in July. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the test was a dangerous tactic that undermined SeoulÂ’s engagement policy with the North. Russia - which along with the United States, China, Japan and the two Koreas has participated in the six-party talks - unconditionally condemned the test.