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North Korea Claims Successful Nuclear Bomb Test

Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Mon 09 Oct 2006 09:07 AM PDT  


North Korea Claims Successful Nuclear Bomb Test

North Korea Claims Successful Nuclear Bomb Test

Toronto, Canada
Monday October 9, 2006

North Korea is making a strong push for consideration as a nuclear power. What effect that will have on the already impoverished and isolated nation has yet to be seen.

A barrage of condemnation and calls for retaliation befell the communist state Monday after it announced it had set off a small atomic weapon underground.

The United States, Japan, China and Britain urged action by the United Nations Security Council in response to the reported test. The Council warned North Korea just two days earlier not to follow through with any test, and Kim Jong-il's government's defiance could mean a serious international backlash.

White House spokesman Tony Snow called for "immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act" and said that the United States was closely monitoring the situation and "reaffirms its commitment to protect and defend our allies in the region."

The actual strength of the nuclear device is less significant than the act of a test. South Korea's geological institute estimated it at 550 tonnes of TNT, making it far smaller than the nuclear bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan at the end of the Second World War.

Asian neighbours said they registered a seismic event, but only Russia said its monitoring detected a nuclear explosion.

"It is 100 per cent (certain) that it was an underground nuclear explosion," said Lt. Gen. Vladimir Verkhovtsev, head of a Defence Ministry department.

If that's the case, North Korea's long-standing claims it has the capability to produce such technology now have the first tangible evidence in support. A successful test propels the nation into a small club of nuclear-armed states and would mark a dramatic shift in the Pacific region's balance of power, not to mention undermine global anti-proliferation efforts.

"If the test (is) true, it will severely endanger not only Northeast Asia but also the world stability," said Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

That's saying nothing of what little stability exists in North Korea. Even their chief ally China, also the country's main source of food, expressed "resolute opposition" to the reported test and urged the North to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks. It said the North "defied the universal opposition of international society and flagrantly conducted the nuclear test."

In Canada, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said the world should not rush to judgment or action in such a sensitive situation.

"Everyone is going to have to moderate their response in the short term, so as not to cause an improper reaction," MacKay said. "Clearly this has very alarming global implications."

In North Korea, the act is being hailed as a great step forward, a mark of progress in a struggling land.

North Korean scientists "successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions," the government-controlled Korean Central News Agency said, adding this is "a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation.

"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the ... people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability."

Meanwhile, South Korean stocks plunged following the announcement of the test, as did the value of the South Korean won.


Here's a look at North Korea's nuclear program and what it may - or may not - have.

HOW MANY BOMBS: Estimates of the amount of radioactive material the North possesses vary widely, enough for possibly between four and 13 weapons, and are unverifiable.

The count compares with a U.S. arsenal of more than 5,000 strategic warheads, more than 1,000 operational tactical weapons - meant for the battlefield and less powerful than the strategic arms - and approximately 3,000 reserve strategic and tactical warheads.

DELIVERY: A top concern is the possibility of North Korea mounting bombs atop missiles aimed at Seoul, Tokyo or even parts of the United States.

The communist nation shocked the world in 1998 by firing a long-range ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. But the country isn't believed to have a nuclear weapons design that would be small and light enough to be mounted atop a missile.

In July, North Korea test-launched seven missiles, but a long-range rocket believed capable of reaching American shores exploded shortly after liftoff.

HOW STRONG: There were conflicting reports on the strength of the blast. A state-run South Korean geological institute said the force of the test was equivalent to 550 tons of TNT. That is relatively small compared to the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, which was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.

But Russia's defense minister said it was far more powerful, equivalent to 5,000 to 15,000 tons of TNT.

In 1996, France detonated a bomb beneath Fangataufa Atoll about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti that had a yield of about 120,000 tons of TNT.

HISTORY: North Korea is believed to have been accumulating plutonium for a bomb since the mid-1980s. It froze the program in 1994 as part of an agreement with the United States. Since the breakdown of that agreement in late 2002, North Korea is believed to have ramped up production.

Some experts estimate that at least 80 percent of the country's stockpile of 44 to 116 pounds of refined plutonium was processed since the end of the freeze in 2002.

Without another agreement, North Korea is forecast to boost its stockpile to 160 pounds by 2008 - enough to build between eight and 17 bombs.

OTHER DANGERS: North Korea could decide to sell a nuclear bomb to another country or terrorist group, as it seeks to wiggle out of sanctions imposed on the already impoverished country.

Source: Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

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