N. Korea conducts second nuclear test following rocket launch

By Sam Kim

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Monday it successfully carried out a second nuclear test to bolster the "might" of its arms, less than two months after it fired a rocket that neighbors fear could be turned into a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S.

Its official media said the test was "successful" and "helped satisfactorily
settle the scientific and technological problems" that may have arisen after it
conducted its first test in October 2006.
South Korea said its weather agency detected tremors of "an artificial
earthquake" measuring at 4.5 on the Richter magnitude scale in the northeastern
part of the communist neighbor at 9:54 a.m.
A source, who declined to be named, said North Korea coupled the detonation with
a test of a short-range missile from a coastal base where the communist regime
conducted its April 5 rocket launch.
The U.S. refrained from confirming the North Korean announcement, but President
Barack Obama called Pyongyang's action "a threat to international peace."
"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants action by the
international community," he said.
Russia said the "nuclear explosion" appears to have had a force of up to 20
kilotons, according to its state media. U.S. intelligence had said that the
October 2006 test had a yield of less than one kiloton. A nuclear test is
considered successful when it yields between five and 15 kilotons.
"The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of
its explosive power and technology of its control," the North's Korean Central
News Agency said, monitored in Seoul.
The test, which South Korea said appears to have taken place in Poongkye-ri,
North Hamgpyong Province -- the site of the 2006 blast -- was aimed at "further
increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear
technology," the report said.
"The nuclear test is a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean
Peninsula," South Korean presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said in a
government statement, calling it "intolerable" and "a serious challenge to the
international regime on nuclear non-proliferation."
In a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone, South Korean
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan agreed to push for a U.N. Security Council
emergency meeting, while the defense ministry in Seoul placed its 655,000 troops
on a heightened alert.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, in his talks with Yu, urged that regional
peace and stability be given top priority in dealing with North Korea's latest
challenge. Diplomatic sources said North Korea had given Beijing prior notice of
the nuclear test.
Since the U.N. Security Council condemnation of its rocket launch, North Korea
has threatened additional nuclear and missile testing, vowing to toughen its
"nuclear deterrent."
Pyongyang claims it put a satellite in orbit with the launch while Seoul and
Washington said nothing entered space, calling it as a provocative test of
long-range ballistic missile technology.
South Korean and U.S. experts downplay the ability of the communist regime to tip
its intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear bombs.
Protesting the international objection to its rocket launch, North Korea has
vowed to jettison the six-nation denuclearization-for-aid talks and expelled
outside monitors from its nuclear facilities.
The North is believed to have plutonium enough to create up to six nuclear bombs.
It has vowed to restore its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which had been undergoing
disablement under a pact signed by the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, Russia and
China.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,
said North Korea is stepping up its pressure on Washington to squeeze "maximum"
concessions from it.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also knows that U.N. sanctions, imposed after the
2006 test, would have little economic impact on his already isolated country, he
said.
"Kim is following his roadmap under meticulous calculations," he said. "After the
sanctions and temporary condemnations, he is looking at maximizing profits North
Korea may get by holding nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S."
Yang added North Korea appears to be expecting increased internal military unity
as a result of the nuclear test.
South Korea's stock and currency markets briefly tumbled after the North Korean
announcement, but recovered most of their earlier losses.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 2.85 points, or 0.2
percent to 1,400.90. The local currency closed at 1,249 won to the U.S. dollar,
down 1.6 won from Friday's close.