US Undersecretary of State John Bolton was speaking just hours after a North Korean official repeated that Pyongyang had no intention of developing nuclear weapons.

"I don't think that it's a question of 'if' it goes to the Security Council ... It's a matter of time," Bolton told a news conference after talks on the issue with South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Song-hong.

"We are confident it will get there by the end of this week."

All of the United States' fellow permanent Security Council members -- Britain, France, China and Russia -- opposed North Korea having nuclear weapons and should have no objection to the issue being taken to the council, he said.

Asked about the reluctance of some countries to move swiftly to the council, Bolton said: "There is complete agreement that the end result has to be the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons."

The crisis was sparked in October when the United States said North Korea had admitted to developing nuclear arms. Pyongyang last month ejected UN nuclear inspectors, removed the seals from a mothballed reactor and then pulled out of a global treaty to prevent the spread of atomic weapons.

North Korea has said any UN move to impose sanctions would exacerbate the crisis and could trigger war.

It has insisted the only solution to the impasse is to hold direct talks with the United States, which a year ago grouped the North with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil," and for Washington to sign a non-aggression treaty.

A response to Bolton's remarks was swift.

North Korea would resume tests of ballistic missiles if the Security Council begins discussions on the crisis, diplomatic sources close to North Korea said in Tokyo.

"The North would lift its self-imposed moratorium on missile launches if and when the issue is referred to the Security Council," said a source, adding that an actual test launch would follow soon.

"Pyongyang will never cave in to threats and will respond with an even harder line," he said. "But we have to see the true intention behind Bolton's remarks."

But Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Monday, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "The fundamental idea of the North Korean side is a readiness for dialogue which could end the crisis.

"The dialogue must be conducted at the bilateral level, in the first instance with the United States, and in a multilateral format," he said.

Some weight has been attached to Losyukov's visit since Russia is the only G8 power to have good relations with both North and South Korea.

North Korea stunned its neighbors in 1998 by firing a medium-range ballistic missile over Japan. The following year, it announced a self-imposed moratorium on missile test flights to last until the beginning of this year and said last September it would extend the moratorium indefinitely.

This month it said it was free to resume firing tests.

MANY OPTIONS

Bolton said taking North Korea to the Security Council and imposing sanctions on it were "two entirely different matters" and Washington wanted a multinational approach to Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship.

The impasse has sparked a series of diplomatic initiatives and US officials have cited some progress, an indication that Washington has shifted from its hard line of "no negotiations" now that the standoff has become a distraction to its preparations for war against Iraq.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, adding his voice to mounting international concern, urged North Korea Tuesday to reconsider its withdrawal from the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear arms and return to dialogue.

In Tokyo, another source close to the North said if the United States were to take a tougher stance, Pyongyang could declare an intention to make nuclear weapons.

"That's how the Pyongyang government believes it can protect its sovereignty and survival," he said. "No one would be able to stop it even though China and Russia...do not want that."

North Korea's delegates to ministerial talks in Seoul told their South Korean counterparts that Pyongyang had no intention of developing atomic arms, a South Korean official said.

"North Korea stressed that it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons," South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Rhee Bong-jo told reporters after the opening one-hour session of cabinet-level talks due to continue until Friday.

(China Daily January 23, 2003)