North Korea conducts first nuclear test

SEOUL - Stalinist North Korea announced Monday that it had conducted its first ever atomic bomb test, defying global opinion to send a nuclear shiver around the world.

The official KCNA news agency said the test was successfully conducted at 10:36am (0136 GMT).

"The nuclear test was conducted by 100 percent of our wisdom and technology," it said, claiming there was no danger of radioactive leaks.

"Our science and research centre safely and successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9, 2006."

South Korea's intelligence agency detected a 3.58 magnitude seismic tremor at the time of the test, a foreign ministry spokesman in Seoul said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun immediately called an emergency meeting of security officals because of what the foreign ministry said was "a grave change in the situation involving the North's nuclear activity."

News of the test came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe landed in Seoul seeking its support for a common line against the reclusive North.

"President Roh Moo-hyun called in an emergency meeting of related ministers to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-Ho as saying.

"The government has received a report that there was a tremor of 3.58 sensed from North Korea's northern Hamkyong province at 10:36 am (0136 GMT)," Choo Kyu-Ho told AFP.

Another ranking foreign ministry official quoted by Yonhap earlier said the government had received intelligence that North Korea appeared to have already carried out a nuclear test.

"We are not in a position to confirm such a report,' a South Korean defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Choo said that security-related ministers had been holding talks at the presidential office since 11:30 am (0230 GMT) to discuss whether it was related to a nuclear test.

Pyongyang had announced on October 3 through its foreign ministry that it planned a test under safe conditions, citing "the US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure."

That announcement triggered worldwide alarm and appeals for a change of heart, including a UN Security Council statement.

The United States and South Korea warned they could not tolerate a nuclear-armed North, Japan said any test would be unforgivable and China, Pyongyang's main ally, urged it to show restraint.

The world's eighth declared nuclear power is a secretive and volative regime which for five decades has been technically at war with South Korea and the United States.

It is believed to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium to make several crude nuclear bombs, according to US and South Korean experts.

The North, which pledges no first use of any nuclear weapons, also has an advanced missile programme although it is not known whether it could arm one with a nuclear warhead.

On July 5, it test-fired seven missiles which fell into the sea - including a Taepodong-2 believed to be technically capable of hitting the United States.

In its October 3 statement, the North pledged never to use nuclear weapons first and strictly to ban the transfer of nuclear weapons and technology.

"The ... nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the Korean nation from the US threat of aggression and averting a new war..." it said at the time.

North Korea had kept the world guessing for almost 20 years about its progress towards a bomb, declaring only in February 2005 that it possessed nuclear weapons.

The United States had said it would press for mandatory UN sanctions after any test, but played down the prospect of a military response -- something Seoul has also ruled out.

Analysts had said a test may trigger a regional nuclear arms race, and Leave international non-proliferation efforts in tatters.

Agence France-Presse

This information does not surprise me, and I don't think it is the first 'test' from North Korea. They are just coming out of the closet.


grateful

Combustible ... North Korea is threatening to fire a nuclear missile in the wake of its atom bomb test, which is the target of this fiery protest on the streets of Seoul Pic: Reuters



Map of alleged nuclear test site

N Korea threatens nuclear missile

By staff writers and wires

October 10, 2006 06:44pm

NORTH Korea has warned it could fire a missile with a nuclear warhead unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with the world's newest nuclear power.

Pyongyang drew international condemnation yesterday for what it said was its first nuclear weapons test, carried out in defiance of UN warnings.

In a report sure to send more shivers around the globe, the South Korean news agency Yonhap today quoted an unnamed North Korean official as saying: “We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes.

“That depends on how the US will act.”

The official did not say where any nuclear missile would be aimed, but insisted North Korea was willing to return to international arms talks and abandon its nuclear program if the US took “corresponding measures”, Yonhap reported.

“The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table,” he said before going on to dismiss the threat of sanctions by the UN Security Council.

”We have lost enough. Sanctions can never be a solution. We still have a willingness to give up nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks as well. It's possible whenever the US takes corresponding measures.”

The official did not elaborate on what those measures would be, but one of them is believed to be a long-standing North Korean demand that Washington lift financial restrictions imposed on the communist regime for its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

North Korea has cited the financial issue in boycotting nuclear disarmament talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US.

But Washington has said the issue is unrelated to the nuclear talks, urging the North to return to the negotiating table without conditions.

And the prospect of any concessions by the US now – given Pyongyang's claim yesterday it had tested a nuclear weapon – seem inconceivable.

The US is leading a charge at the UN Security Council for a raft of harsh sanctions against the North over its claimed test.

The US has proposed a series of UN financial and weapons sanctions to punish North Korea, including cargo inspections to limit Pyongyang's ability to import or export nuclear or ballistic missile technology.

It also wants an end to Pyongyang's access to illicit funds, including its alleged manufacture of counterfeit US dollars, and a freeze on financial assets connected with weapons of mass destruction, with a review of the North's response to be carried out within 30 days.

Japan is backing a US call to invoke Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which provides for mandatory sanctions or, as a last resort, military action, in response to threats to international peace and security.

South Korea's nuclear envoy today said even China – North Korea's chief ally and benefactor – appeared to have dropped opposition to a Chapter 7 resolution.

“China seems to have different position than it had before on a Chapter 7 resolution,” Chun Young-woo said, after returning from crisis talks in Beijing.

South Korea – which in recent years had stepped up economic, political and humanitarian contact with the North, hoping it may ease the way to eventual unification – said today it was reconsidering its policy of engagement.

“It's true that with the situation now, a reconsideration of our engagement policy is needed,” a presidential spokesman quoted President Roh Moo-hyun as saying today.

China was still insisting today that there was room for negotiations to end the North's nuclear ambitions, despite Pyongyang embarrassing Beijing by defying its appeals not to conduct the test.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao admitted: “The nuclear test will undoubtedly exert a negative impact on our relations.”

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer went further, saying North Korea had “humiliated China”.

The Australian Government, one of the few with formal diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, today hauled in North Korean ambassador Chon Jae Hong, telling him Canberra would back the push for new UN sanctions under Chapter 7.

It would also restrict visits by North Koreans, but Downer said Chon would not be expelled.

News Limited

From what I`ve seen on the News, the only nation with any type of influence over N. Korea is it`s close neighbour, and communist ally, China.

They were displeased to say the least with recent events, but they won`t want to cause instability with the North that`s for sure. I can`t see China going with any particularly strong economic sanctions against them.