But now that the US 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 US envoy, said North Korea 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."

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

Under a 1994 deal with the US 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."

Asked why it would not be a good thing for North Korea, Snow said, "If they do believe that somehow people are going to give them a pass on this, they're going to find out that they're wrong."

While US officials insist they aren't about to invade, they have taken other steps against North Korea - even before the UN resolution - including severing it from the international financial system. That move is believed to have angered North Korea.

The North has consistently pressed for direct talks with the US on the financial sanctions and has refused to attend six-nation disarmament talks until the sanctions are lifted. Along with the US, the talks include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Now, North Korea has a new arrow in its quiver: being a confirmed nuclear power recognized as such by the very country whose attention it so desperately craves.

The Bush administration, wary of rewarding North Korea's behavior, has consistently refused to talk directly to the North, insisting the issue is a regional concern and seeking to enlist other countries.

On Tuesday, Rice left for Japan, first stop on a four-nation trip, amid clear signs of unease in China and South Korea about even the softened sanctions.

China contends that interdicting ships, although permitted in the UN resolution, might needlessly provoke the North and discourage it from returning to the six-nation talks. South Koreans worry about a conventional attack by their unpredictable neighbour.

"Sanctions against North Korea should be done in a way that draws North Korea to the dialogue table," South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook said, according to Yonhap news agency. "There should never be a way that causes armed clashes."

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