Sometimes, its an underground nuclear test by a regime run by a nutcase:
TOKYO, Oct. 9 — North Korea declared on Monday that it had conducted its first nuclear test, asserting a claim to be the world’s newest nuclear power and drawing strong international condemnation.
The South Korean government informed officials in Washington that an explosion occurred at 10:36 a.m. local time. Minutes later, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency announced the test, calling it “a historical event that has brought our military and our people huge joy.”
Chinese officials released a statement simultaneously recognizing and condemning the test. U.S., South Korean and Japanese authorities said they were still reviewing intelligence data but had no reason to immediately doubt the veracity of the Pyongyang government’s claim.
The announcement brought a hailstorm of swift international denunciations and touched off a chain reaction of security jitters that caused the Japanese yen to fall to seven-month lows and sent the South Korean currency and stock market plunging. South Korean officials said they detected a significant man-made explosion in the barren northeast of the peninsula, and were substantiating the Pyongyang government’s claim. The test would make the Stalinist state the world’s eighth proven nuclear power, as well as its most volatile.
Chinese authorities immediately condemned the test. North Korea “has ignored the widespread opposition of the international community and conducted a nuclear test brazenly on October 9,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site. “The Chinese government is firmly opposed to this.”
The White House did not immediately confirm the test, but spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement: “U.S. and South Korean intelligence detected a seismic event Sunday at a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea. A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act, in defiance of the will of the international community and of our calls to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in northeast Asia. We expect the Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act.”
The U.S. Geological Survey registered a “seismic event” of magnitude 4.2 at 10:35 a.m. local time 240 miles northeast of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist at the agency. She said the event occurred 45 miles north of the North Korean town of Kimchaek.
Russia’s defense minister said the reported test was equivalent to between 5,000 tons and 15,000 tons of TNT, the Associated Press reported. That would make the blast possibly as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in World War II, which was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, the news agency said. Although the United States and Asian countries said they had registered a seismic event, Russia said its monitoring services had detected a nuclear explosion, but no radiation.
Something tells me we’ll be paying more attention to the Korean peninsula real soon.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
There is a difference betweeen North Korea and Iran.
They have nothing, China, Russia or the EU want.
I don’t expect the footdragging, endless succesion
of final deadlines and stalling on sanctions.
October 25th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
The biggest difference is that North Korea is very willing to their weapons to the highest bidder. Not a comforting thought if they have functional nukes.
October 25th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
The biggest difference is that North Korea is very willing to sell their weapons to the highest bidder. Not a comforting thought if they have functional nukes.