The Security Council adopted a resolution at the weekend demanding the communist nation cease tests. North Korea ``totally rejects'' the resolution, Ambassador Pak Gil Yon said at the UN after it was passed, adding that further pressure on the country would result in ``physical counter measures.''
``Concerns over the recent build-up in tensions between North Korea and the western world,'' have pushed up prices of precious metals, James Moore, a Kettering, U.K.-based analyst with TheBullionDesk.com, said in an e-mailed note today. It ``will likely be a supporting factor in the coming days and weeks, particularly if the saber-rattling intensifies.''
Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as $3.20, or 0.5 percent, to $593.60 an ounce in London, the highest since Oct. 3. It traded at $591.90 as of 9:01 a.m. local time.
Some investors buy gold in times of political uncertainty. The metal jumped 5.3 percent after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
``Firmness in the oil market'' also pushed gold prices higher, Moore said. Some investors buy the metal as a hedge against inflation.
Crude oil rose for a third day in New York on concern members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase production cuts to stem a decline in prices in the past three months. Gold last week had its biggest weekly gain since July as energy costs climbed.
Oil `Overwhelming'
Crude oil for November delivery gained as much as 65 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $59.22 a barrel in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $59.17 a barrel at 9:07 a.m. London time.
``The overwhelming thing at the moment is crude and the direction it's going,'' Rowan Menzies, chief commodity analyst at Commodity Warrants Australia Ltd., said by phone from Sydney. Gold's rally and its ability to remain above $575-$580 level last week ``has given fund buyers and technical buyers a reason to get back in the gold market,'' Menzies said.
Among other precious metals for immediate delivery in London, silver gained 7 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $11.70 an ounce, platinum climbed $8.25, or 0.8 percent, to $1,084.50 and palladium rose $6, or 1.9 percent, to $319.50.
