U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday that the United States would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and sternly warned it against transferring any nuclear material.
In a speech to an Asian defense conference in Singapore, Gates also said the threat from North Korea, which this week detonated a nuclear device and launched a series of missiles, could trigger an arms race in Asia.
"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or on us," Gates said. "We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state."
Compounding tensions on the Korean peninsula, a South Korean newspaper quoted a source in Washington as saying Pyongyang was preparing to move an intercontinental ballistic missile from a factory near the capital to a launch site on the east coast.
Increasingly belligerent North Korea has warned of war, saying it was no longer bound by an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and threatened further provocations in response to U.N. Security Council censure. Read more.