EU's Ashton tells North Korea to halt nuclear arms work

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned North Korea's third nuclear test on Tuesday and told Pyongyang to refrain from further provocative actions.

"This nuclear test is a further blatant challenge to the global non-proliferation regime and an outright violation of the (North Korea's) international obligations not to produce or test nuclear weapons," Ashton said in a statement.

"We once again urge (North Korea) to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, including its uranium enrichment programme, in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," she said.

(Reporting by Charlie Dunmore and Justyna Pawlak)