News Sharing : N Korea confirms 'successful' underground nuclear test

毀屍滅跡

N Korea confirms 'successful' underground nuclear test

North Korea said it successfully detonated a miniaturised nuclear device at a northeastern test site on Tuesday, defying UN Security Council orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation.

The underground explosion could take North Korea a big step closer to its goal of building a nuclear warhead small enough to be mounted on a long-range missile that could threaten the United States. It will also be seen as a direct message from young leader Kim Jong-un to the United States, Pyongyang’s former wartime enemy.

North Korea’s official state media said the test was conducted in a safe manner and is aimed at coping with “outrageous” US hostility that “violently” undermines the North’s peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites. North Korea faced sanctions after a December launch of a rocket that the UN and Washington called a cover for a banned missile test. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.

Following the announcement of the nuclear test, North Korean state television played a song with lyrics bragging that the country always carries out what it is determined to do. In the background were scenes of a North Korean long-range rocket blasting off and short-range missiles being fired into the sky.

The timing will be seen as significant. The test came hours before US President Barack Obama was scheduled to give his State of the Union speech, a major, nationally televised address. It’s also only days before the Saturday birthday of Kim Jong-un’s father, late leader Kim Jong-il, whose memory North Korean propaganda has repeatedly linked to the country’s nuclear ambitions. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North said it used a “lighter, miniaturised atomic bomb” that still has more explosive force than past tests. North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponised plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker. However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to miniaturise warheads.

Proven miniaturisation ability would take on added significance in the wake  of December’s rocket launch which marked a major step forward in the North’s  ballistic prowess.

The test will likely draw harsh censure and more sanctions from the United States and other countries at a time when North Korea is trying to rebuild its moribund economy and expand its engagement with the outside world.

Obama said on Tuesday that North Korea’s “provocative” nuclear test did not make it more secure and called for “swift” and “credible” international action in response.

Obama also vowed in a written statement that Washington would remain vigilant in the face of the underground nuclear test by the Stalinist state and steadfast in its defense commitments to its allies in Asia.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the nuclear test, saying it was “deplorable” that Pyongyang had defied international appeals to refrain from such provocative acts.

"The Secretary-General condemns the underground nuclear weapon test conducted by [North Korea] today,” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement. “It is a clear and grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.”

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday morning. South Korea’s UN Mission informed reporters that the closed-door meeting will begin at 9am.

In a first US reaction to North Korea’s nuclear test, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said  spy agencies were evaluating a “seismic event” in the Stalinist state.

“The Intelligence Community is aware of a seismic event with explosive characteristics in North Korea and we are evaluating all relevant information,”  said a statement issued by the DNI’s office.

Russia “decisively condemned” the test as a "violation of the corresponding UN Security Council resolution", a Foreign Ministry source said.

Kim Min-seok, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that North Korea informed China and the United States of its plans to conduct a nuclear test. It was not clear when Pyongyang told Beijing and Washington.

A UN Security  Council diplomat said North Korea ignored a “strong warning”  from China against staging its suspected nuclear weapon test.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Korean, US and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies said they detected an earthquake in North Korea with a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.2.

The China Earthquake Network Centre, affiliated with China’s Earthquake Administration, said a quake at 10.57am was a "suspected explosion", and occurred at a "focal depth of 0 km”.

The US Geological Survey measured it as a 4.9-magnitude quake at a very shallow depth of just one kilometre. It said the epicentre was close to the North’s known nuclear test site.

Japan will consider its own sanctions against North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday.

“I have ordered that we consider every possible way to address this issue, including our own sanctions, while co-operating with other countries,” Abe told reporters after a meeting of Japan’s security council.

The nuclear test is North Korea’s first since Kim Jong-un took power of a country long estranged from the West.

Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect North Korea’s goal of building nuclear warheads small enough to be placed on long-range missiles. This atomic test is North Korea’s third since 2006.

The test will likely be portrayed in North Korea as a strong move to defend the nation against foreign aggression, particularly from the US, North Korea’s longtime enemy.

North Korea’s rocket launches and nuclear tests largely are seen by analysts as threats designed to force the United States to confront the issue of military tensions between the foes 60 years after the end of the Korean War.

The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea announced last month that it would conduct a nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over the December rocket launch.

In Washington, the White House had no immediate comment on Tuesday’s developments.

North Korea’s National Defence Commission said January 23 that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.

Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media that the country had built a missile capable of striking the United States, but did not provide further details.

The decision to push ahead with a test will be a challenge to the UN Security Council, which recently punished Pyongyang for launching the long-range rocket. In condemning that launch and imposing more sanctions on Pyongyang, the council had demanded a stop to future launches and ordered North Korea to respect a ban on nuclear activity – or face “significant action” by the UN.





What a terrible news...