Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan was told during meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jongil and other officials in Pyongyang last week that the North has no plans currently to carry out another test, said Liu Jianchao. “But if it faces pressure, North Korea reserves the right to take further actions,” Liu said, citing Tang.

Despite the apparently conciliatory tone of the meeting, Liu said that the North Korean leader did not express regret for his regime’s October 9 nuclear test, as some South Korean media had reported.

“These reports are certainly not accurate,” Liu said. “We haven’t heard any information that Kim Jong-il apologised for the test.”

Liu’s comments were the fullest public account China has given of the October 19 meeting that analysts and diplomats have called a critical opportunity for assessing North Korea’s intentions.

North Korean officials told the Chinese envoy that they were willing to return to international negotiations on their nuclear programme “but they want certain questions, including the matter of US financial sanctions against it, resolved first,” Liu said at a regular press briefing.

The US has sought to cut off the North’s access to international banking as punishment for alleged counterfeiting of US dollars and other illicit activity. Pyongyang has denied the charges and boycotted six-nation talks on its nuclear programme until the US ends the crackdown.

Also Tuesday, Ban Ki-moon, the next United Nations secretary-general and South Korea’s foreign minister said Seoul backs the sanctions.

US does not detect second nuclear test

Seoul: The US military has detected no signs of North Korea preparing a second nuclear test, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported today.

US military officials gave that intelligence assessment to their South Korean counterparts during annual defence talks in Washington last week, Yonhap said, citing unidentified defence officials. Officials at the Defence Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

North Korea undertook its first-ever nuclear test on October 9 and has threatened to take further “physical measures