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Posted: 7:26 AM- SEOUL, South Korea - China, which holds the key to whether tough U.N. sanctions will be imposed for North Korea's nuclear test, warned its ally Tuesday that the detonation would harm relations, but called on the United Nations to use "positive and appropriate measures."
China's Foreign Ministry vented its anger against its communist ally over the test for a second day, with a spokesman saying that relations had been damaged.
"The nuclear test will undoubtedly exert a negative impact on our relations," the spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said at a routine media briefing. He said Monday's test was done "flagrantly, and in disregard of the international community's shared opposition."
But Liu urged diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis and said that the time was not right for punishment, much less military action.
China has been North Korea's major ally and a source of both food and fuel for the desperately poor nation of 23 million. Behind Beijing's largesse is a fear that a collapsing North Korea could bring U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to China's doorstep, or send refugees pouring across the border, destabilizing the Chinese industrial northeast.
"Taking military action against North Korea would be unimaginable," Liu said. "What we should discuss now is not the negative issue of punishment."
"Instead, the international community and the United Nations should take positive and appropriate measures that will help the process of de-nuclearization on the Korean peninsula," he said.
The South Koreans were lining up with the Chinese in opposing any U.N. resolution that includes a military threat.
"There should never be war on the Korean Peninsula," South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook told parliament.
Japan's leader said his nation still had no intention of seeking atomic weapons, easing fears of a new regional nuclear arms race.
"There will be no change in our non-nuclear arms principles," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers.
Japan could slap sanctions on North Korea without waiting for confirmation of its alleged nuclear weapons test, he said.
Earlier Tuesday, Japan's lower house of Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution protesting Pyongyang's move.
"As the only country to have ever suffered a nuclear attack ... Japan strongly condemns North Korea's actions and demands that it abandon its nuclear weapons program," the resolution read. Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled by American atomic bombs in 1945.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said ahead of a Security Council meeting Tuesday that the standoff was one "between North Korea and the rest of the world," which will result in sanctions or more serious punishment.
He refused to rule out military action, including a naval blockade, but emphasized that President Bush wants to resolve the matter using peaceful means.
"I think that North Korea has had a successful history of intimidating other countries," Bolton said on CBS' "The Early Show." "They're not going to be successful with us."
China has long opposed sanctions sought by countries such as the United States, which is pressing for potentially crippling new measures against Pyongyang.
If the Security Council endorses sanctions, China would have little choice but to impose them, said Zhang Liangui, North Korea watcher at the Central Party school, a Communist Party training academy in Beijing.
"China needs to keep in lockstep with the international community," Zhang said.
A permanent Security Council member, China has a decisive say over how stern a punishment the international community can mete out to North Korea.
A South Korean envoy, returning to Seoul from Beijing, said China appeared to be leaning toward backing strong U.N. measures.
The North, meanwhile, stepped up its threats aimed at Washington, saying it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing.
Even if Pyongyang is confirmed to have nuclear weapons, experts say it's unlikely the North has a bomb design small and light enough to be mounted atop a missile. Their long-range missile capability also remains in question, after a test rocket in July apparently fizzled out shortly after takeoff.
"We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," Yonhap quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying. "That depends on how the U.S. will act."
The official said the nuclear test was "an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," reported Yonhap, which didn't say how or where it contacted the official, or why no name was given.
But Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said the nuclear test would make the possibility of direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang more difficult, Yonhap reported.
The U.N. Security Council was weighing a U.S. proposal for potentially crippling sanctions. Washington has asked the council to adopt a measure that would aim to curb the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, prohibit all trade in military and luxury goods, and crack down on illegal financial dealings.
South Korea said that it believed the North had exploded a nuclear device on Monday, but officials claimed that it might take up to two weeks to confirm whether the test was successful.
Seoul was borrowing a sophisticated radioactivity detector - set to arrive Wednesday - from Sweden to confirm the tests, said Bae Koo-hyun, a researcher of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety.
Although the reported test drew worldwide condemnation and talk of harsh sanctions, the South said it would stick with its efforts to engage the North, though the policy would be reviewed.
North Korea celebrated a holiday Tuesday marking the 61st anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea. There was no traffic across a key bridge on a border river between China and North Korea.
China canceled leave for its soldiers along the North Korean border and some units were conducting anti-chemical weapons drills, the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po reported in Hong Kong. The paper didn't elaborate.
There was no sign of heightened security in the Chinese border city of Dandong, and reporters saw two boatloads of North Korean tourists on the river, smiling and waving to people on the Chinese shore.
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Associated Press Writers Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul, Mari Yamaguchi and Kana Inagaki in Tokyo, Alexa Olesen in Beijing, and Greg Baker in Dandong, China.