Breaking News: North Korea conducts Nuclear test

[Neo]

There are know reports that NK might be preparing for a second nuclear test in the manner of which Pakistan and India did in 1998.

They might do so but if the first test was successful there's no need for further tests.
North Korea has limited reserves of plutonium, experts say there's merely enough to make five bombs and with current production one one can be added each year.

This might lead to Japan and SK starting up its nuclear program

Indeed, another weapon rece has started!
Japan will have to amend its constitution since development of nukes is prohibited aswell as operating its forces outside its own territories...
Expect Japan to beef up its air defence including SAM's or even something like a mini startwars programme of its own.
Tokyo certainly have the money and thne technology to do that.
South Korea is a different story; its more vulnerable and has limited financial resourcs to expend air defence like Japan.

Both will have to abandon NPT, something that is not going to happen easily.

Remembert people, scientist estimate the if within one month of starting nuclear program japan could have as high as 3-20 nukes

That is because Japan operated 50 reactors under IATA safeguar and produces enough plutonium to built 200+ nukes a year!

 

[Neo]

Analysts: North Korean test more worrying than India-Pakistan blasts

By Danny Kemp, AFP

ISLAMABAD — Eight years ago it was India and Pakistan who shocked the world with their underground atomic blasts, but North Korea's nuclear test on Monday is far more alarming, analysts said Monday.
In May 1998 a South Asian apocalypse suddenly seemed a possibility after the two rival nations carried out tit-for-tat tests — the last nuclear explosions until now.

News bulletins at the time showed footage of a barren yellow mountain in remote southwestern Pakistan shuddering with the sheer force of simultaneous detonations deep below the earth.

Yet the situation now is more serious, analysts said, particularly as Pyongyang may have learned lessons from Pakistan, whose disgraced nuclear hero provided North Korea with atomic secrets.

"I would say that this is much more significant," analyst and retired Pakistani Army General Talat Masood told AFP.

"In 1998 it was much more India-Pakistan specific, but the North Korean test means U.S. nuclear hegemony in East Asia has collapsed, the counter-proliferation policy by the U.S. has collapsed and their axis of evil policy has collapsed," he said.

Mainly Hindu India carried out its first nuclear test in secret in 1974. It had already fought three wars with Muslim-majority Pakistan since independence from Britain and their subsequent partition in 1947.

In 1998 New Delhi followed up by detonating five warheads beneath the Rajasthan desert between May 11 and 13.

Pakistan came under huge international pressure not to follow suit but it exploded five bombs in Baluchistan province on May 28 and another two days later.

The two countries became the world's sixth and seventh declared nuclear powers respectively, while Pakistan also emerged as the only nation in the Islamic world with the bomb.

"It's a formidable challenge for a country after they have detonated," said analyst Masood. "There is fear of the unknown, as to how the world will react, what the consequences are, what the sanctions will be."

Major powers did impose strict sanctions but they evaporated after a time. Pakistan joined the U.S.-led "war on terror" in 2001, while Washington earlier this year offered India a civilian nuclear power deal.

Naresh Chandra, who was India's ambassador to Washington when India conducted the nuclear tests, said North Korea may have been influenced by Pakistan's escape from U.S. sanctions.

"Pakistan got off lightly even after the A.Q. Khan network was exposed. The U.S. believed their version of the story and they were let off easily. They also got economic aid and financial support," Chandra said.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's former chief atomic scientist, admitted in 2004 that he had provided nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. The government denied its involvement but gave him a pardon.

President Pervez Musharraf admits that Khan sold Pyongyang around a dozen centrifuges to enrich uranium, but Pakistan says that North Korea's test bomb was likely plutonium-based.

The Pakistani foreign office on Monday denied that the North Korean bomb test was linked to A.Q. Khan's activities and said it "deplored" the test."

"There was also a bit of a cover up when China helped Pakistan and North Korea with nuclear and weapons technology and the U.S. turned a blind eye to this," Chandra added.

"Perhaps North Korea thinks the U.S. will look the other way again."

C.U. Bhaskar, a defense analyst with the New Delhi-based Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis — a government-funded military think-tank — said North Korea was counting on getting more international clout.

"The test allows North Korea to enter the six-party talks as a nuclear weapon state on par with China, Russia and the United States," he said.

Pyongyang has boycotted the stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear program since last November.

"This changes the contours of things," said Bhaskar.

Copyright 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-09-nkorea-analysis_x.htm?csp=34

 

[EagleEyes]

Now for stage two: putting a warhead on the end of a ballistic missile
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

Our correspondent examines the implications of Pyongyang's nuclear test for the international community

With a nuclear test “successfully” completed, is North Korea now a nuclear weapons state?

No, but it has proved to the world that it has the capability and the technology to produce nuclear warheads, and the clear intention to join the atomic club.

How big was the test?

Reports vary and it will take a few days before experts can be precise about the size of the explosive yield. The Russians, who have carried out hundreds of underground tests and have sophisticated seismic systems to detect clandestine activities in North Korea, claimed that the yield was between five and 15 kilotons, the latter equating to the Hiroshima bomb.

However, the South Koreans said that the blast was equivalent to less than one kiloton of TNT. The South Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources estimated the tremor to be about four on the Richter scale, indicating an explosive equivalent to 550 tonnes of TNT, or less than 4 per cent of the power of Hiroshima.

There was even doubt cast on whether it was a nuclear explosion at all, although tests by the Americans, Japanese and Russians over the next few days — including airborne systems that “sniff” out any radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere — will resolve those.

To add to the riddles, Chinese officials close to the North Korean Government claimed that the device tested was a neutron bomb, designed to create massive radioactivity, focusing on killing people rather than destroying whole areas with heat and blast.

How far away is North Korea from developing a complete weapon system — fitting a warhead to a ballistic missile?

Western experts said it was highly unlikely that North Korea would have reached this stage in its clandestine programme without a parallel project to design a warhead for a ballistic missile.

Some observers said that North Korea would face a considerable challenge to design a warhead small enough and robust enough to be fitted to its substantial inventory of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles. However, Duncan Lennox, Editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said that it would make no sense to carry out a nuclear test without having in mind a specific design for a warhead. Pakistan and India carried out tests eight years ago but had parallel missile programmes, which meant that they became fully-fledged nuclear weapon states in a comparatively short period.

“The North Koreans will have to get the warhead weight down to about 750kg, which is equivalent to second-generation American and Russian nuclear devices,” Mr Lennox told The Times. “That’s not high technology.” A 750kg nuclear warhead would produce a yield of 20-30 kilotons.

Miniaturising nuclear war- heads for intercontinental missiles will be beyond the present North Korean capability. In the most sophisticated weapons- design world, weight does not equate to yield. The Americans and Russians have produced low-weight nuclear warheads capable of producing 250 kilotons.

What missiles do the North Koreans have?

After years of skilfully adapting Russian-made Scud missiles, North Korea has an arsenal of Scud Bs with a range of 320km (200 miles), Scud Cs with a range of 570km, Nodong missiles with a range of about 1,500km and Taepodong 1 missiles with a range of 2,300km. It is researching a system called the Taepodong 2, which could have a range of 15,000km (9,300 miles).

North Korea carried out six missile tests in July, one of them involving the Taepodong 1, which could theoretically reach Alaska and Hawaii, but this launch failed after 40 seconds.

Who has helped North Korea?

Pyongyang has benefited from undercover deals involving Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear weapons chief and so-called father of the Pakistan bomb, who has been accused of masterminding a blackmarket in nuclear weapons trading.

He is suspected of supplying North Korea with uraniumenrichment equipment and possibly even warhead designs, in exchange for Pyongyang’s ballistic missile expertise.

North Korea has developed both an enriched uranium and a plutonium nuclear capability and is believed to be focusing on a plutonium bomb, which is lighter than a uranium device.

WORLD REACTION

‘The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has ignored the widespread opposition of the international community and brazenly carried out a nuclear test’
Chinese Government

‘This further act of defiance shows North Korea’s disregard for the concerns of its neighbours and the wider international community’
Tony Blair

‘[Japan will] immediately consider taking stern measures’
Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister

‘Russia absolutely condemns the test in North Korea, which has inflicted great damage to the non-proliferation process’
President Putin

‘North Korea’s nuclear test was a reaction to America’s threats and humiliation’
Iranian state radio

‘Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond’
President Bush

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2396150,00.html

 

[Spring Onion]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2131513.cms


Bush rules out military strike against N Korea
Chidanand Rajghatta
[ 9 Oct, 2006 2134hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK

WASHINGTON: US President George Bush implicitly ruled out any immediate military action against North Korea for its "provocative" nuclear test while indicating Washington will lead the world in sanctioning the renegade country.

In a brief statement delivered from a White House podium hours after the test, Bush said he had conferred with leaders of China, Russia, Japan and South Korea and they had agreed that North Korea’s action was "unacceptable" and deserved a response from the UN Security Council.

"The United States remains committed to diplomacy," Bush said, thereby ruling out a military response that has frequently been hinted at by US officials.

Some analysts believe Senior Bush administration officials backed North Korea into a corner by rejecting direct bilateral talks with the communist regime and threatening war with statements like "the world will not be the same again" if North Korea tests.

Bush himself had injected a personal element into ties with North Korea by saying he "loathes" its leader Kim Jung Il.

"I loathe Kim Jong Il. I've got a visceral reaction to this guy, because he is starving his people. And I have seen intelligence of these prison camps -- they're huge -- that he uses to break up families and to torture people. It appalls me,'' Bush told Bob Woodward some months back.

In his 2002 State of the Union speech, Bush also denounced North Korea as being part of an "Axis of Evil" along with Iran and Iraq.

Bush though suggested in his statement on Monday that Washington’s preferred route of diplomacy will remain six-party talks that brings South Korea, Japan, China and Russia to the table along with US and North Korea.

Describing North Korea as "one of the world’s leading proliferators," Bush said it had supplied technology to Iran and Syria, but he omitted mentioning Pakistan, Washington’s client state which has a better-chronicled record of nuclear and ballistic missile trade with North Korea.

Bush began by saying that the US is still working to confirm the North Korean announcement of the nuclear test but he maintained "such a claim itself constitutes a threat." The US, Bush said, will stand by its security commitments to South Korea and Japan.

While a North Korean representative at the United Nations said with a straight face that his country deserved to be congratulated by the US for conducting nuclear test, Bush sternly said "the test will not lead to a bright future for the people of North Korea...who deserve better."

 

[KashifAsrar]

That's what American policies are all about. Diplomacy with the strong and arm twisting the weeks. BUSH did not add a new tongue twister here.
Kashif

 

[Neo]

Now for stage two: putting a warhead on the end of a ballistic missile

By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

Our correspondent examines the implications of Pyongyang's nuclear test for the international community

With a nuclear test “successfully” completed, is North Korea now a nuclear weapons state?

No, but it has proved to the world that it has the capability and the technology to produce nuclear warheads, and the clear intention to join the atomic club.

How big was the test?

Reports vary and it will take a few days before experts can be precise about the size of the explosive yield. The Russians, who have carried out hundreds of underground tests and have sophisticated seismic systems to detect clandestine activities in North Korea, claimed that the yield was between five and 15 kilotons, the latter equating to the Hiroshima bomb.

However, the South Koreans said that the blast was equivalent to less than one kiloton of TNT. The South Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources estimated the tremor to be about four on the Richter scale, indicating an explosive equivalent to 550 tonnes of TNT, or less than 4 per cent of the power of Hiroshima.

There was even doubt cast on whether it was a nuclear explosion at all, although tests by the Americans, Japanese and Russians over the next few days — including airborne systems that “sniff” out any radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere — will resolve those.

To add to the riddles, Chinese officials close to the North Korean Government claimed that the device tested was a neutron bomb, designed to create massive radioactivity, focusing on killing people rather than destroying whole areas with heat and blast.

How far away is North Korea from developing a complete weapon system — fitting a warhead to a ballistic missile?

Western experts said it was highly unlikely that North Korea would have reached this stage in its clandestine programme without a parallel project to design a warhead for a ballistic missile.

Some observers said that North Korea would face a considerable challenge to design a warhead small enough and robust enough to be fitted to its substantial inventory of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles. However, Duncan Lennox, Editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said that it would make no sense to carry out a nuclear test without having in mind a specific design for a warhead. Pakistan and India carried out tests eight years ago but had parallel missile programmes, which meant that they became fully-fledged nuclear weapon states in a comparatively short period.

“The North Koreans will have to get the warhead weight down to about 750kg, which is equivalent to second-generation American and Russian nuclear devices,” Mr Lennox told The Times. “That’s not high technology.” A 750kg nuclear warhead would produce a yield of 20-30 kilotons.

Miniaturising nuclear war- heads for intercontinental missiles will be beyond the present North Korean capability. In the most sophisticated weapons- design world, weight does not equate to yield. The Americans and Russians have produced low-weight nuclear warheads capable of producing 250 kilotons.

What missiles do the North Koreans have?

After years of skilfully adapting Russian-made Scud missiles, North Korea has an arsenal of Scud Bs with a range of 320km (200 miles), Scud Cs with a range of 570km, Nodong missiles with a range of about 1,500km and Taepodong 1 missiles with a range of 2,300km. It is researching a system called the Taepodong 2, which could have a range of 15,000km (9,300 miles).

North Korea carried out six missile tests in July, one of them involving the Taepodong 1, which could theoretically reach Alaska and Hawaii, but this launch failed after 40 seconds.

Who has helped North Korea?

Pyongyang has benefited from undercover deals involving Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear weapons chief and so-called father of the Pakistan bomb, who has been accused of masterminding a blackmarket in nuclear weapons trading.

He is suspected of supplying North Korea with uraniumenrichment equipment and possibly even warhead designs, in exchange for Pyongyang’s ballistic missile expertise.

North Korea has developed both an enriched uranium and a plutonium nuclear capability and is believed to be focusing on a plutonium bomb, which is lighter than a uranium device.

WORLD REACTION

‘The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has ignored the widespread opposition of the international community and brazenly carried out a nuclear test’
Chinese Government

‘This further act of defiance shows North Korea’s disregard for the concerns of its neighbours and the wider international community’
Tony Blair

‘[Japan will] immediately consider taking stern measures’
Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister

‘Russia absolutely condemns the test in North Korea, which has inflicted great damage to the non-proliferation process’
President Putin

‘North Korea’s nuclear test was a reaction to America’s threats and humiliation’
Iranian state radio

‘Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond’
President Bush

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2396150,00.html

 

[Neo]

Who has helped North Korea?

Pyongyang has benefited from undercover deals involving Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear weapons chief and so-called father of the Pakistan bomb, who has been accused of masterminding a blackmarket in nuclear weapons trading.

He is suspected of supplying North Korea with uraniumenrichment equipment and possibly even warhead designs, in exchange for Pyongyang’s ballistic missile expertise.

North Korea has developed both an enriched uranium and a plutonium nuclear capability and is believed to be focusing on a plutonium bomb, which is lighter than a uranium device.

Mr. Michael Evans, the Defence Editor and Author to the article fails to emphasise that North Korean detonated a Pu device implicating Pakistan has supplied the technology, while Pakistan's nuclear programme at the time of AQ Khan was based on the HEU. Only of of the six testes is claimed to be based on the Pu.

 

[Salahuddin]

Pyongyang Warned on Weapon Testing


U.S. Won't Accept Nuclear N. Korea

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer

10/05/06 " Washington Post" -- -- The Bush administration delivered a secret message to North Korea yesterday warning it to back down from a promised nuclear test, and it said publicly that the United States would not live with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang government.

North Korea "can have a future or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill said yesterday in remarks at Johns Hopkins University's U.S.-Korea Institute. It was the toughest response yet from the Bush administration, coming two days after Pyongyang announced plans to conduct its first nuclear test.

Hill did not explain how the administration would respond to a test, but he said it is willing to sit with North Korean officials and diplomats from the region to discuss the crisis. "We will do all we can to dissuade [North Korea] from this test," he said. State Department officials said Hill is considering a trip to Asia to discuss options with key allies.

"We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea, we are not going to accept it," Hill said. He said the United States had passed along a private warning through North Korea's diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York.

North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for as many as 11 nuclear bombs. It announced in February that it had succeeded in building a weapon, although intelligence analysts believe it is still years away from being able to deliver one.

Tuesday's statement did not set a date for a test. Senior intelligence officers and some administration officials said they had no clear signs indicating when one might occur.

"In terms of how much time they need and how far along they are, we don't know if it's even realistic" to test in the near term, said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in discussing classified intelligence estimates. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said U.S. officials are looking at "all kinds of information" related to the possibility of a test.

Topographical changes resulting from a test would be visible to U.S. satellites, officials said. The test could also be detected by ground-based seismic sensors, some owned by U.S. intelligence and others by international monitoring stations set up to detect and deter nuclear tests around the world.

Several government analysts suggested that a test could come as early as Sunday, the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's appointment as head of the Korean Workers' Party, in 1997. It may also be timed to coincide with an election at the United Nations on Monday during which Ban Ki Moon, South Korea's foreign minister, is expected to be chosen as the next U.N. secretary general.

In a private phone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday, Ban offered to mediate between Washington and Pyongyang should he be selected as the next U.N. chief, according to an official briefed on the call.

Bush's top advisers held an emergency meeting about North Korea on Tuesday to review a number of strategies under consideration but came away with little agreement. Officials briefed on the meeting, chaired by national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, said the participants discussed a range of options for restarting talks with Pyongyang and coaxing allies such as China and South Korea to adopt a tough line in the face of threats. "It was the first in a series of meetings we're going to have to hold," said one official who agreed to discuss it on the condition of anonymity. "There has been no major policy shift or change in anything at this point," the official said.

The State Department issued a worldwide communique to foreign governments afterward reiterating the administration's belief that a test would destabilize the region.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton discussed the matter with the Security Council, Casey said. The United States hopes "to see some action there in the near future," he added.

But Bolton said that, already, there are disagreements among council members about how to respond and that a Japanese initiative to send a council warning to Pyongyang lacks support.

North Korea's nuclear capabilities have grown significantly during Bush's presidency. When he came into office six years ago, intelligence agencies estimated that North Korea had the capability to make one or two nuclear weapons. As the potential arsenal has grown to as high as 11, the administration has rebuffed calls to sit down directly with North Korea.

Source: Washington Post

 

[Neo]

N. Korea air sample has no radioactivity

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.

The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.

The official described the results as the State Department announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to China, South Korea and Japan next week to discuss steps to be taken to pressure North Korea to drop its nuclear efforts and to assess the security situation in the region.

Rice's trip is the next step in the U.S. diplomatic offensive at the United Nations and with Pyongyang's neighbors.

Members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Friday on the wording of a resolution that would clamp sanctions on the communist country. The draft, which U.S. officials said they hoped would be approved on Saturday, would authorize non-military sanctions against the North, and says that any further action the council might want to take would require another U.N. resolution.

It also eliminates a blanket arms embargo from a tougher, previous draft, instead targeting specific equipment for sanctions including missiles, tanks, warships and combat aircraft.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that on Rice's trip, "she's going to be talking about the passage of that resolution certainly, but really what comes after. She's going to be talking about how to go about actually implementing that resolution."

The U.S. government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion Monday trumpeted by North Korea as a nuclear test. The air sampling tends to reinforce earlier doubts about whether the test blast was entirely successful, officials said. Data from seismic sensors indicated the explosion was smaller than expected.

At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration's analysis of North Korea's claim was still ongoing and is covering a wide range of data in an attempt to reach a conclusion about whether it is valid.

"We still do not have a definitive statement on it," he said. "They still think the analysis that they're doing will take another day or two."

The air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialized aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the sample over the Sea of Japan, between the Korean mainland and Japan.

In Beijing, a government official said Friday that Chinese monitoring also has found no evidence of airborne radiation from the test-explosion. The official with the State Environmental Protection Administration said China has been monitoring air samples since Monday.

"We have conducted air monitoring and found no radiation in the air over Chinese territory so far," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly release the information. The official declined to explain how the Chinese monitoring was conducted.

The U.S. intelligence official said an initial result from testing of the U.S. air sample became available late this week. He said a final result would be available within days but the initial finding is considered conclusive.

It was not immediately clear whether the WC-135 took additional samples after the Tuesday effort.

The U.S., which has sought tough steps in the United Nations that could leave the door open to a blockade or other military action, has had to give ground to gain support from China and Russia. Those countries, along with South Korea, have been reluctant to abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff.

On Wednesday, Bush indicated that he saw little distinction between an actual nuclear test by North Korea and its announcement of one.

"The United States is working to confirm North Korea's claim, but this claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and stability," Bush said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_nkore..._Js4j2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

 

[Neo]

So its confirmed that the test was a dud!
Will North Korean's rush to detonate the second one?
Imho, that's not going to happen.
Pyongyang wanted the make an statement ands did so by testing the first device.
Even if it failed to reach the expected yield, the polictical fall out is as it was expected.

 

[Neo]

Defiant NKorea says UN resolution 'declaration of war'

SEOUL (updated on: October 17, 2006, 18:58 PST): A defiant North Korea declared on Tuesday that UN sanctions following its nuclear test were tantamount to a 'declaration of war' as Japan sounded the alert over a possible second atom bomb test.

In its first government reaction since the UN Security Council imposed the measures, the Stalinist regime warned it would strike with "merciless blows" against any countries that impinged on its sovereignty.

The statement came as the United States sought to tighten the screws on the reclusive nation with a diplomatic drive aimed at cutting off its lifeblood by ensuring the UN measures are vigorously enforced.

Separately, China -- Pyongyang's closest ally -- promised to abide by the sanctions and urged North Korea not to escalate tensions.

"The important thing right now is that all parties concerned should refrain from taking any action that may further escalate the tensions," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

Pyongyang dismissed the Council's unanimous decision as "immoral behaviour". It said having a nuclear weapon was its legitimate right and lashed out at the United States, which it accused of plotting to destroy the nation.

"The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war," the foreign ministry said, referring to the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We will watch US movements and take corresponding action," an unidentified spokesman said, quoted by the secretive regime's official KCNA agency.

"The UNSC 'resolution,' needless to say, cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war against the DPRK because it was based on the scenario of the US, keen to destroy the socialist system."

Impoverished and almost completely isolated from the outside world, North Korea stunned the global community when it announced October 9 that it had conducted an atom bomb test.

After initial doubts, US intelligence officials confirmed it was a nuclear explosion but with an unusually low yield of less than one kiloton, suggesting it had at least partially failed.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso earlier Tuesday said Tokyo had received information of possible preparations for a second test after US spy satellites reportedly picked up suspicious movements of trucks and people near the blast site.

"I have received information on that, but can't disclose the details," Aso said. He did not elaborate, and other officials have cautioned there is little hard evidence to back up the reports.

Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator on the North's nuclear programme, warned Pyongyang against a second nuclear test, as China and Japan also told the regime to stand down if it was considering such a move.

"I think we would all regard a second test as a very belligerent answer on North Korea's part to the international community," Hill said. "I think the international community will respond very clearly to the DPRK on this."

The US envoy, who was in Seoul as part of a swing through Asia to shore up enforcement of the sanctions, said the North must understand "that the international community is not going to accept the DPRK as a nuclear state.

The package of sanctions against the North is aimed at curbing the Pyongyang regime's nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programmes.

Most controversially, it also allows for inspections of cargo going in and out of the country in an effort to prohibit any illicit trafficking -- actions which China and South Korea fear could provoke the regime.

Hill was in South Korea to lay the groundwork for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrives here Thursday on a haul that takes her first to Japan and later to China and Russia.

South Korea, which fears it will suffer dearly from any conflict, warned the sanctions must not push Pyongyang too far.

"Sanctions against the North should be carried out in a way to push North Korea back to the dialogue table," Prime Minister Han Myeong-Sook said. "They must not be implemented in any way that could spark an armed clash."

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Liu said China would implement the sanctions while taking its own commercial interests into account.

"The Chinese side has always implemented the Security Council's resolutions seriously and in a responsible manner. This time is no exception," Liu said.

His comments came after the United States on Monday urged Beijing to honour its "responsibilities and obligations".

The White House's comments came amid specific concerns that Beijing might not carry out border inspections of cargo moving in and out of North Korea.

The inspections aim to prevent the cash-strapped North Korean regime from selling material for an atomic bomb to terrorists or rogue states.

 

[Zeeshan S.]

Do you guys really think North Korea will try to attack any country if U.N does throw sanctions against it, which i believe U.N will do.

A fire against any U.S ally will be an invitation of U.S aircraft carriers, and bombers.