North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test yesterday, defying a warning from the UN Security Council and opening its crippled economy to the risk of fresh sanctions.
South Korea put its troops on heightened alert after the announcement, which came just minutes before Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe landed in Seoul for a visit. The move could heighten regional tension and deal a fresh foreign policy blow to President Bush ahead of mid-term elections.
President Bush said North Korea has "defied the will of the international community," and the UN Security Council planned a meeting this morning, where the US and Japan are expected to press for
more sanctions on the impoverished North.
Bush said the action "deserves an immediate response" by the UN Security Council."
The White House branded the act "provocative" and said it expected the UN Security Council to take immediate actions.
The United Nations Security Council began an emergency session yesterday to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapon test and the nomination of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon as the new UN secretary general.
The talks are due to thrash out the council's response to Pyongyang's first such test, with several members openly calling for sanctions against the Stalinist regime.
Benjamin Chang, a deputy
spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, said the council would first discuss its response to the nuclear test, which came in brazen defiance of a UN resolution passed Friday urging the Stalinist state not to carry it out.
Long Pyongyang's chief ally, China denounced the "brazen" act, urging it to avoid action that could worsen the situation, and Russian President Vladimir Putin also condemned the test.
North Korea's announcement pushed the dollar to an eight-month high against the yen and helped shove oil above $60 a barrel. South Korea's won fell 1.5 percent to twomonth lows and its main stock index tumbled as much as 3.6 percent.
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The US Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.2 magnitude tremor in North Korea at 10:35 local time (0135 GMT). The Japan Meteorological Agency said its data showed a tremor took place around Gifu, on the peninsula's northeast coast around 110 km (70 miles) from the Chinese border.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said there was no leak or danger from its test.
"The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent," KCNA said.
"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability."
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably lacks the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
The chief of South Korea's intelligence agency told lawmakers it was possible North Korea would carry out a second test, Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted one deputy as saying.
The lawmaker said Kim Seung-gyu, head of the National Intelligence Service, told a parliamentary committee that unusual signs had been detected at a North Korean town.
There were conflicting reports on the size of the blast in northeast North Korea. South Korea said it was relatively small, while Russia said it had been perhaps as powerful as the nuclear bombs the US dropped on Japan during World War II.
A US official said it could take several days for intelligence analysts to determine whether the event was the result of an unsuccessful nuclear test, a small nuclear device or a non-nuclear explosion.
"In terms of yield, we have it registering at less than four on the Richter scale. That's the kind of thing that could be the result of several hundred tons of TNT, rather than a nuclear test," the official added.
Gary Gibson of Australia's Seismology Research Center put it at about one kiloton, the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. Russia's RIA news agency quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying it ranged between 5 and 15 kilotons.
The US Air Force dropped a 12.5-kiloton bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshimain 1945.
The UN Security Council urged North Korea last week not to carry out a test, warning of unspecified conse-quencesifit did.
Speaking after Seoul talks with Japan's Abe, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the North's test was a dangerous ploy that could prompt other countries to develop nuclear weapons.
The United Nation's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), said Pyongyang's test threatened a global treaty to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"This reported nuclear test threatens the nuclear non-proliferation regime and creates serious security challenges not only for the East Asian region but also for the international community," the IAEA said in a statement.
In Tokyo, reporters asked Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki if Japan, a traditional target for North Korean hostility, might now change policy and acquire atomic arms. He replied: "There is absolutely no change to Japan's policy over nuclear weapons."
Shiozaki said there was no need for those living in Japan to worry about radioactive fallout. "It would be minimal and the effect on humans and the environment would not be a problem," he said.
The Security Council, due to meet on Monday to officially nominate South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as next UN secretary-general, was likely to discuss North Korea's move.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the North had given China a 20-minute warning of its test and Beijing had immediately alerted Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.
Seoul and Beijing -- leery of instability on the Korea peninsula -- have previously cautioned against backing the North into a corner, while Tokyo favors a hard line toward Pyongyang.
However, all three agree Pyongyang should end its 11-month boycott of six-nation talks on ending its nuclear arms program.
North Korea announced last week its intention to test a nuclear device, saying its hand had been forced by what it called US threats of nuclear war and economic sanctions. But it said it would not be the first to use a nuclear weapon. (Reuters, AP, AFP)