Adidas410s
10-09-2006, 08:56 AM
After months of tense posturing, threats, attempted negotiations and bold defiance, North Korea is reported to have conducted a successful underground nuclear test Monday (October 9), becoming the eighth country in history to detonate a nuclear device. The test drew immediate condemnation from the international community, including the White House and North Korea's close ally, China, which denounced the test as "brazen," according to CNN.
The U.S. said, if confirmed by the Pentagon, the test would be seen a "provocative act" by a country that is considered by many governments to be unstable and unpredictable under the leadership of enigmatic President Kim Jong-il.
Most concerned was South Korea, which warned that it would react "sternly and calmly," with the country's president saying that South Korea considered the test as a maneuver that "broke the trust of the international community" and which threatens the stability of the Korean Peninsula and all of northeast Asia.
The North Korean press agency confirmed that "the nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA [Korean People's Army] and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability. It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."
According to South Korean defense officials, the apparent test took place in Hwaderi near Kilju city, with Russian officials saying their equipment confirmed the test of a device measuring five to 15 kilotons. That amount would put the device in the same range as the 15 kiloton device the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima to end World War II in the first-ever use of a nuclear weapon during wartime.
The U.S., which had been warning North Korea to abandon its goal of testing a nuclear device, was said to be consulting with allies around the world and gearing up to request sanctions on Monday during an early morning meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, CNN reported. On Friday, the Security Council threatened North Korea with unspecified serious action if it carried out a nuclear test.
In a conference call with reporters, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said "a North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in northeast Asia." China was reportedly given a 20-minute warning before the test, during which it passed the information on to the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
Seismic data appears to confirm that a test took place. The U.S. Geological Survey Web site recorded a light 4.2-magnitude earthquake in North Korea at 10:35 a.m., about 240 miles northeast of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The North Korean press agency said there was no radioactive leakage from the test site, but some officials warned that it's possible the device could have a been a more primitive conventional explosion meant to mimic a nuclear detonation.
Even if American "sniffer" planes can pick up evidence of nuclear byproducts in the air, The New York Times reported that it is unknown if North Korea has the ability to make a bomb that could be fitted atop one of its missiles, one of the country's few big exports, which it has sold to Iran, Syria and Pakistan.
In addition to raising tensions with long-time economic supporter China and neighbor South Korea — with which it fought a bloody war from 1950-1953 — the reaction to the test is being closely watched by Iran and other states suspected of attempting to follow North Korea's path into the nuclear club, according to the Times.
The explosion was the culmination of nearly 40 years of work on the project by one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries, which the Times said has long feared that its government would be unseated by the U.S. or its more powerful regional neighbors. It also followed nearly 20 years of diplomatic failure to stop the country's nuclear program, which officials now fear could be tapped by rogue nations or terror groups as a source of nuclear material. In 2003, President Bush said the U.S. would never "tolerate" a nuclear-armed North Korea.
— Gil Kaufman
The U.S. said, if confirmed by the Pentagon, the test would be seen a "provocative act" by a country that is considered by many governments to be unstable and unpredictable under the leadership of enigmatic President Kim Jong-il.
Most concerned was South Korea, which warned that it would react "sternly and calmly," with the country's president saying that South Korea considered the test as a maneuver that "broke the trust of the international community" and which threatens the stability of the Korean Peninsula and all of northeast Asia.
The North Korean press agency confirmed that "the nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA [Korean People's Army] and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability. It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."
According to South Korean defense officials, the apparent test took place in Hwaderi near Kilju city, with Russian officials saying their equipment confirmed the test of a device measuring five to 15 kilotons. That amount would put the device in the same range as the 15 kiloton device the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima to end World War II in the first-ever use of a nuclear weapon during wartime.
The U.S., which had been warning North Korea to abandon its goal of testing a nuclear device, was said to be consulting with allies around the world and gearing up to request sanctions on Monday during an early morning meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, CNN reported. On Friday, the Security Council threatened North Korea with unspecified serious action if it carried out a nuclear test.
In a conference call with reporters, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said "a North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in northeast Asia." China was reportedly given a 20-minute warning before the test, during which it passed the information on to the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
Seismic data appears to confirm that a test took place. The U.S. Geological Survey Web site recorded a light 4.2-magnitude earthquake in North Korea at 10:35 a.m., about 240 miles northeast of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The North Korean press agency said there was no radioactive leakage from the test site, but some officials warned that it's possible the device could have a been a more primitive conventional explosion meant to mimic a nuclear detonation.
Even if American "sniffer" planes can pick up evidence of nuclear byproducts in the air, The New York Times reported that it is unknown if North Korea has the ability to make a bomb that could be fitted atop one of its missiles, one of the country's few big exports, which it has sold to Iran, Syria and Pakistan.
In addition to raising tensions with long-time economic supporter China and neighbor South Korea — with which it fought a bloody war from 1950-1953 — the reaction to the test is being closely watched by Iran and other states suspected of attempting to follow North Korea's path into the nuclear club, according to the Times.
The explosion was the culmination of nearly 40 years of work on the project by one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries, which the Times said has long feared that its government would be unseated by the U.S. or its more powerful regional neighbors. It also followed nearly 20 years of diplomatic failure to stop the country's nuclear program, which officials now fear could be tapped by rogue nations or terror groups as a source of nuclear material. In 2003, President Bush said the U.S. would never "tolerate" a nuclear-armed North Korea.
— Gil Kaufman