South Korean Christians pray for the peace of the Korean peninsula during a special service to denounce North Korea's nuclear programme at a church in Seoul on Monday. - Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters):

North Korea yesterday denounced United Nations sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and the United States and others suspect it may try a second bomb test despite international condemnation.

Defiant in the face of sanctions backed by even its closest ally, China, Pyongyang said it had withstood international pressure before and so was hardly likely to yield now that it had become "a nuclear weapons state."

"It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state," official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

"The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war," he said, referring to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Not out of character

The Bush administration said it would not be surprised by a second North Korean test meant to test the will of the United Nations and the five states - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - engaged in long-stalled talks with Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans have made no secret of their desire to be provocative. The first test, while nuclear, did have a low yield and perhaps it would not be unreasonable to expect that the North Koreans would like to try something again," White House spokesman Tony Snow said in Washington. "It would not be a good thing for them, but it certainly would not be out of character."

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov also said he did not exclude the possibility of another test blast.

"Russia's reaction in that case would be exactly the same as it was to the first nuclear explosion - that is, negative," he told reporters.

The U.S. government confirmed on October 9 that the underground blast was a nuclear explosion.