SEOUL, South Korea -- A North Korean diplomat said Tuesday the country's nuclear test was smaller in blast force than expected, but he claimed Pyongyang had the ability to detonate a more powerful device, a South Korean newspaper reported.
Quoting an unidentified diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, the Hankyoreh newspaper said he claimed the test was a success and "smaller in scale than expected."
"But the success in a small-scale (test) means a large-scale (test) is also possible," he said in comments posted on the Web site of the liberal newspaper that has good ties with the communist nation.
The diplomat also said the North could take "additional measures" following Monday's nuclear test, and that it doesn't fear sanctions.
"The U.S. should show its dialogue attitude in action if it wants to solve the problem," the diplomat said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Otherwise, we continue to go on this footing. We have been under sanctions so far, and therefore there won't be greater hardship for us."
The North's diplomat also repeated Pyongyang's long-running demand that the U.S. lift financial restrictions against Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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