N. Korea claims nuke test
TOKYO – North Korea declared today that it had conducted its first nuclear test in defiance of international calls for restraint, claiming to be the world’s newest nuclear power.
South Korean geological officials said they had detected a significant man-made explosion in the barren northeastern part of the peninsula that appeared to substantiate the Pyongyang government’s claim.
South Korean government officials informed U.S. officials that the explosion, registering 3.58 on the Richter scale, had taken place at 10:36 a.m. ( 6:36 p.m. PDT Sunday). Minutes later, North Korea’s official KCNA news service announced the test, calling it “a historic event that has brought our military and our people huge joy.”
The U.S. Geological Survey later recorded a 4.2-magnitude seismic event in northeastern North Korea.
Today’s test appeared timed to coincide with the ninth anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s appointment as head of the Korean Workers’ Party. And it came just one day before South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will face a vote on his bid to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
The test alters the balance of power in northeastern Asia and touches off grave concerns about the proliferation of refined nuclear material or devices to other rogue states or terrorist groups. North Korea already generates tens of millions of dollars a year through its thriving underground sales of missiles and other sophisticated weaponry to nations including Iran and Syria.
It also was set to bring Pyongyang’s four-year standoff with Washington over its nuclear programs to a head. U.S. intelligence sources said the Bush administration is talking about immediate naval action around North Korea. “This won’t exactly be a blockade, which is an act of war. But we could stop and inspect all ships in and out of North Korea,” one senior U.S. government official said.
U.S. officials had braced for the test Sunday after they received an early warning from China, sources said. The Chinese government told U.S. officials late Sunday that Pyongyang had informed Beijing that a test would take place.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that he could not confirm that a nuclear test had occurred and deferred questions about a potential response to the White House. If a test has indeed occurred, Whitman said, “you’ll find that the U.S. government’s position will be firmer” than that of recent days, in which officials categorized reports of a looming test as troubling and a crisis that the president wanted to resolve in a peaceful and diplomatic way.
“The dynamics have changed,” Whitman said. Asked about a change in the military’s defense posture, Whitman said, “I wouldn’t get into alert statuses or anything like that.”
The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the reported North Korean test today, and the U.S. and Japan are likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
U.S. officials are considering a number of other actions to take against Pyongyang, which could include new economic measures. Japan, which considers itself the most vulnerable to a North Korean attack, agreed with U.S. officials to immediately call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to seek a tough, binding resolution that would force North Koreans back to stalled six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
The Security Council has repeatedly warned North Korea to desist from provocative actions, and to resume multiparty talks over the future of its nuclear program. On Friday, the 15-nation council issued a statement expressing “deep concern” about Pyongyang’s pledge to conduct its first test of a nuclear explosive, saying it would “jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond.”
The council issued a veiled threat to consider tough action, including the possibility of sanctions, against Pyongyang if it conducted a test, warning that a nuclear test “would bring universal condemnation.”
In late 2002, North Korea took a series of steps including kicking out international weapons inspectors and reprocessing plutonium in defiance of the international community. The Bush administration rebuffed North Korea’s calls for bilateral talks to solve the crisis, instead pushing for an international framework that forced the North to the bargaining table with the United States but also China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Today’s test, analysts said, provided unmistakable evidence that the six-party framework had failed, leaving Washington and its partners in the region facing the profoundly more difficult task of disarming a state that has already fulfilled its nuclear ambitions. No nation that has successfully conducted a nuclear test have ever been persuaded to give them up the capacity through diplomacy, sanctions or other means.
U.S. and Asian intelligence officials have estimated that the North could possess nuclear material for as many as a dozen nuclear weapons – and last February, North Korea unilaterally declared itself a nuclear power. But until today, there was no proof to those claims.
Given North Korea’s million-man army and vast array of ballistic missiles, which could easily reach huge population centers such as Tokyo and Seoul, U.S. officials have largely discounted any military solution. Instead, the Bush administration is likely to push for tougher economic sanctions at the United Nations.
Japan, which has already imposed limited economic sanctions on North Korea, has additionally said it will take a host of harsher measures. But few analysts believe Washington and Tokyo’s efforts alone would serve to successfully pressure North Korea back to the negotiations.