Tue, Oct 10, 2006 page1

• North Korea conducts nuclear test

  WORLD CONDEMNS US President Bush joined his counterparts in Asia and Europe in protesting Pyongyang's test and calling on the UN to act

  • AGENCIES
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  North Korea faced united global condemnation and calls for harsh sanctions yesterday after it announced it had detonated an atomic weapon in an underground test that thrust Pyongyang into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations.

  The explosion prompted worldwide concern it could seriously destabilize the region. South Korea's spy chief said there were possible indications that Pyongyang was moving to conduct more tests.

  The UN Security Council planned a meeting yesterday on the test, and the US and Japan were expected to press for more sanctions on the North.

  

  A South Korean protester burns a banner bearing a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul yesterday after the North said that it had performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test. The banner reads ``Nuclear Abolition.''

  PHOTO: AP

  US President George W. Bush called the North's reported nuclear test a provocative act that requires an immediate response from the Security Council.

  Bush said he had spoken by phone to leaders of China, South Korea, Japan and Russia -- the other parties involved in long-stalled negotiations with North Korea -- and all agreed that the test was unacceptable.

  Bush said US officials were working to confirm North Korea's claim that it detonated a nuclear device underground.

  "Nonetheless, such a threat itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The United States condemns this provocative act," he said.

  Bush said North Korea has been a leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria, and warned Pyong-yang against a transfer of nuclear weapons.

  "The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for consequences of such action," he said.

  While stressing his commitment to diplomacy, Bush said he had told South Korea and Japan that "the United States will meet the full range of our deterrent and security commitments" in the Asia-Pacific region.

  A US intelligence source said a preliminary examination of the data did not indicate a large blast, or a series of explosions, but stressed that analysts were still working on a a definitive evaluation.

  It could take several days for intelligence analysts to determine whether the event was the result of an unsuccessful nuclear test, a small nuclear device or a non-nuclear explosion, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

  "If it was a nuclear test, it appears to be more of a fizzle than a pop," the official said, calling it "a seismic event ... that would suggest an underground explosion."

  South Korea said the blast was relatively small, while Russia said it had been perhaps as powerful as the nuclear bombs the US dropped on Japan during World War II.

  "We have no doubt that it was a nuclear explosion," Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

  The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully using the country's own technology and that no radiation leaked from the site.

  The underground test "marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the [Korean People's Army] and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability," KCNA said in an English-language dispatch, adding that it was "a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation."

  If details of the test are confirmed, North Korea would be the ninth country known to have nuclear weapons.

  South Korea's seismic monitoring center said a magnitude 3.6 tremor felt at the time of the nuclear test wasn't a natural occurrence.

  The head of South Korea's spy agency said the blast was equivalent to less than 1 kiloton of TNT, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu also told lawmakers that there were signs of suspicious movement at another suspected test site, Yonhap said.

  The US Geological Survey said it recorded a seismic event with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2 in northeastern North Korea coinciding with the test claim, but survey official Bruce Presgrave said the agency was unable to tell if it was an atomic explosion or an earthquake.

  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test would mark the beginning of a "dangerous nuclear age" in north Asia.

  Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said the test was a "completely irresponsible act."

  "The breaking of a de facto global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing that has been in place for nearly a decade and the addition of a new state with nuclear weapon capacity is a clear setback to international commitments to move towards nuclear disarmament," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in a statement.

  China yesterday said that Beijing "resolutely opposes" the North Korean nuclear test and hopes Pyongyang will return to disarmament talks.

  South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the test would make it difficult for Seoul to maintain its engagement policy with its neighbor.

  The South is reconsidering plans to ship 4,000 tons of cement of emergency relief to the North for floods it suffered in mid-July, a Unification Ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.

  Seoul cut off regular aid after the North conducted missile launches in July.

  The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs.

  It insists its nuclear program is necessary to deter a US invasion.

  The North has active missile programs, but it isn't believed to have an atomic bomb design small and light enough to be mounted on a long-range rocket that could strike targets as far as the US

  In Pyongyang, North Koreans went about their lives as usual on Monday, with no signs of heightened alert.

  Red flags of the North's Korean Workers' Party draped buildings and lampposts to mark today's 61st anniversary of the party's founding.

  The country's state TV read the report about the test during its regular newscasts. The item wasn't the top story and there were no images shown of the test.
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