North Korea: Sanctions Are Declaration of War

North Korea's No. 2 ranking leader Kim Yong Nam delivers his speech at marking the 80th anniversary of what it calls the " Down-With-Imperialism Union " in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, Oct. 16, 2006. Kim on Monday vowed to strengthen the military and defeat the United States, as tension runs high over its claim to have tested of a nuclear bomb. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) (AP)

The North also said it "wants peace but is not afraid of war," and that it would "deal merciless blows" against anyone who violates its sovereignty.

It said it wouldn't cave in to "the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state."

South Korean nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said the North's reaction wasn't surprising, and was full of "the usual rhetoric."

China warned Pyongyang against aggravating tensions.

"We hope North Korea will adopt a responsible attitude ... and come back to resolving the issue through dialogue and consultation instead of taking any actions that may further escalate or worsen the situation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a press briefing in Beijing.

But now that the U.S. has confirmed that last week's blast was indeed nuclear, North Korea can be expected to use its new position as a confirmed atomic state to press for direct talks and concessions with Washington _ as it did in March 2005, a month after Pyongyang first asserted it had a nuclear weapon.

Hill, the U.S. envoy, said the North was falsely assuming it would win more respect with atomic explosions.

"The fact of the matter is that nuclear tests make us respect them less," he said, adding that the North's comments about sanctions were "not very helpful."

U.S. intelligence has concluded that the North Korean device likely used plutonium, as opposed to uranium, in the Oct. 9 test.

Under a 1994 deal with the U.S. during the Clinton administration, North Korea pledged to freeze its nuclear program, then believed to be based on producing weapons-grade plutonium. But the agreement broke down by 2002 under the Bush administration after revelations of a covert effort by the North to produce highly enriched uranium. Pyongyang soon removed 8,000 spent fuel rods that the International Atomic Energy Agency was monitoring and began to reprocess them into weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

The White House said Tuesday that it wouldn't be surprising if North Korea were to try another nuclear test "to be provocative."

"It would not be a good thing for them, but it certainly would not be out of character," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "We're not going to discuss any particular matters of intelligence, but if you take a look at the record, I think it is reasonable to expect that the government of North Korea will do what it can to test the will, the determination and the unity of the United Nations."