A North Korean propaganda mouthpiece has raised the stakes in a diplomatic poker over Pyongyang's announcement on Tuesday that it would test a nuclear weapon. The paper warned that North Korea's plan  was not a bluff -- a day after the United States warned that Washington "was not going to live with a nuclear North Korea."

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill delivered a speech at the United Nations on Wednesday warning that North Korea "can have a future, or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both." Protests from other nations about the planned test have grown louder since Tuesday, too, with Japan, China, Russia and South Korea urging restraint.

A pro-North Korean paper based in Japan reported on Thursday that plans for a test weren't idle threats. "The nuclear test statement was announced on the premise of action," wrote the Choson Sinbo newspaper. "Carrying out a nuclear test is an inevitable conclusion … under a condition where (the country) declared possession of nuclear weapons in February last year."

Choson Sinbo isn't part of North Korea's official media, but it's considered one of the country's propaganda tools, and its articles are believed to reflect Pyongyang's position. But the paper also indicated there was room for talks to head off a crisis. North Korea's warning on Tuesday included a statement that its goal was to mend "hostile relations" with the US and establish a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

North Korea would like to bargain directly with the United States over its nuclear program, but Washington has insisted on six-nation talks that include North Korea's Asian neighbors. Previous six-nation talks stalled in November 2005.

Where's Kim?

The South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo also reported that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, had not been seen in public for 20 days, noting that he tends to disappear after provocations by his government. In 2003, for example, he made no public appearance for seven weeks after Pyongyang quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He also vanished for about a month after his country test-fired a series of missiles in July.

Intelligence experts in Japan, South Korea, and the United States are divided on whether North Korea can really detonate an underground test weapon. The country claims to be nuclear-armed, and some experts believe it has enough fissile material to build at least a half-dozen nuclear bombs, but there are doubts about whether it could deliver them accurately on a warhead.

The US government hasn't said what it would do if North Korea tested a weapon, but it has repeatedly denied any intention to invade the tiny communist nation. America has maintained a military presence along the South Korean border since a ceasefire ended hostilities between the North and South in 1953. The war is not technically over.