sporkacide

NORTH Korea yesterday became the eighth country in history to proclaim itself a nuclear weapons state, after defying the world's superpowers to detonate an atomic device.

The Stalinist nation is believed to have carried out the underground nuclear test in a deep mountain shaft about 30km north of Kilchu, in the country's northeast, at 11.35am (AEST), in a move that has plunged the Northeast Asian region into one of its biggest security crises in years.

By authorising the test, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a 65-year-old hereditary dictator who runs one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries, defied heavy diplomatic pressure from China, his country's economic and security guarantor.

The UN Security Council was meeting in an emergency session this morning to deal with US and Japanese demands for heavy economic, trade and diplomatic sanctions against the rogue state.

Ahead of the meeting, John Howard called for the council to adopt a Chapter 7 resolution, which authorises the UN to threaten retaliations including military action.

The Prime Minister also demanded co-ordinated trade, travel and financial sanctions but warned that the UN's credibility was on the line.

"If (the UN) fails to act effectively against this outrage from North Korea, it will represent a further diminution of its authority," Mr Howard said.

The test was final confirmation of suspicions over at least the past 13 years that the dangerously isolated North Koreans had built at least one bomb.

Many analysts estimate they now have six to 10 devices.

Yesterday's explosion confirms the first "nuclear breakout" since India and Pakistan tested weapons in May 1998 and will force neighbours Japan and South Korea into fundamental reappraisals of their security arrangements.

North Korea joins the UN's "permanent five" - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - and India and Pakistan, as verified nuclear powers. Israel has never declared itself but is believed to have at least 75 weapons.

In Pyongyang, the official Korea Central News Agency reported the test 90 minutes after it occurred, at noon local time, and asserted: "It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the area around it.

"The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 per cent," KCNA boasted.

"It 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 defence capability." However, there was disagreement outside North Korea about the size and success of the test.

Citing a seismic measurement of magnitude 3.68 for the "earthquake" generated by the explosion, South Korean officials suggested the explosive yield was as low as half a kiloton, equivalent to 500 tonnes of TNT.

Fox News in the US quoted an official last night as describing the bomb as "pretty small" and not having worked properly.

However, the US Geological Survey, which monitors quakes around the globe, put the seismic magnitude at 4.2.

The Japan Meteorological Agency registered a magnitude-4.9 shock, both measures suggesting something between a 10- and 20-kiloton yield. The Nagasaki blast on August 9, 1945, was estimated at 20 to 22 kilotons.

The North Koreans apparently gave the Chinese 20 minutes' warning and Beijing almost immediately warned Tokyo and Seoul of what was coming.

According to The New York Times, the Chinese also sent an emergency alert to Washington through the US embassy in Beijing, with President George W.Bush notified that a test was imminent.

China's Foreign Ministry later issued a statement damning the "brazen" action and demanding that Pyongyang restate its commitment to keeping the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

"The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) ignored universal opposition of the international community and flagrantly conducted the nuclear test on October 9," the statement said.

However, China did not say whether it would at least withhold its Security Council veto to allow sanctions against North Korea.

The North's official media said it had successfully conducted the underground nuclear test under secure conditions, with no radiation leak. "It has been confirmed that there was no such danger from radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test, as it was carried out under scientific consideration and careful calculation," the Korean Central News Agency said.

The test shook the Korean peninsula on the same day Japan's new, nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in South Korea for talks on handling the nuclear crisis and repairing strained relations with South Korea and China over Japan's militaristic past.

It also came just as Japan - which suffered two atomic blasts in 1945 - was renewing debate about whether its ban on possessing nuclear weapons was strategically sound.

Mr Abe said the North's test "can never be pardonable" but urged: "Whatever provocation by North Korea should be dealt with with a cool head."

During the crisis following Pyongyang's ballistic missiles test on July 5 and again last week, China and Russia refused to allow specific threats of UN retaliations.

The US waited several hours for verification before condemning the test, which took place in a shaft under a mountain about 30km north of Kilchu, in North Hamgyeong province, about equidistant from the Chinese and Russian borders.

The US's Tokyo ambassador Tom Schieffer said the US would work at the Security Council with Japan, which currently holds the rotating presidency, and reassured South Korea and Japan about Washington's commitment to their security.

"The United States is prepared to honour its commitment to its allies in Japan as well as (South) Korea," he said after meeting Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

Alexander Downer said he would call in Pyongyang's ambassador Chon Jae-hong today to "explain our position and what we hope will subsequently happen".

But the Foreign Minister indicated he would not be following up last week's threat to suspend diplomatic relations. "Whether cutting diplomatic ties is going to make any difference is a bit of a moot point, but there are other measures that we can take," he said.

The Kim regime announced its intention to test a week ago, blaming American invasion and nuclear attack plans and a financial sanctions campaign that Australia and Japan joined last month.

After more than a decade of "strategic ambiguity" about their nuclear holdings, North Korea announced in February last year that it had working weapons and would use them to defend the country.

In October 2002, the Bush administration accused North Korea of operating a clandestine uranium enrichment program, effectively scuttling what remained of the 1994 Agreed Framework deal to freeze the North's nuclear programs in return for security guarantees and economic support.

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kayliebits mcsporkyberger von nerdstrom del berretta.

it's ok, i'm white.

No Typical Raver

meh, we'll nuke em. what do we need korea for anyways? Kias? shit i'd rather walk

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King of the Hullaboard as voted by my peers.

DJ Saiyan

That's not funny dude.

A country that has no regard for global law in possession of nuclear weapons is serious shit.

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No Typical Raver

OH lol

mintjellie

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huh? what?

sporkacide

It's one of the few times I've woken up in the morning and the president was speaking and I actually decided to listen.

A country like that with a leader who tends to be volatile? Way scary.

DJ Saiyan

Do you have any idea how fucking busy I am? Fuck you Hans Blix!!

DJ Saiyan

Sorry I had to.

peachfuzz

lol.

yeah, it is pretty shitty that n. korea has nuclear weapons now, but i'm not too worried about it quite yet. they can't hit anywhere close to us, and the only people they'd want to use them on is s. korea. since china gives them so much money and other help, they'll cut that off before n. korea is able to make the rockets capable of carrying the warhead across the sea.

so, in my vision, they'll get so far with their nuclear project, get all of the countries funds cut off, and not be able to go any further.

Snuffy

Considering Seoul would be the target of retaliation, lets check with South Korea if it's OK first

No Typical Raver

yeah china and japan are both "hey buddy, cut it out"

nah, i dont care much for them either

Snuffy

I slept with a hot guy from Seoul and he was cool. I don't want him nuked. We like South Korea. OK?

Weaver

man i got friends from south korea, I don't want it to get nuked.
Anyways for now we're safe here in NA. But this will probably result in another cold war "cease-fire through mutual destruction" or whatever they called it. Basically if north korea gets off a nuke and its heading towards china or south korea, they will in turn get nuked.

Hopefully old kim doesn't launch one from his death bed since he won't have much to loose then.

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The cake is a lie.

No Typical Raver

the US has said that any attacks on Japan or S. Korea will be considered an act of war against the US

DJ Tranzit

let's face it..
anything that the US doesn't like is considered an act of war these days.

really, those words hold next to no merrit anymore.

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