Obama condemns N Korea for nuclear test blast

BARACK Obama led the world in condemning North Korea yesterday, after the state said it had carried out a successful underground nuclear test.

While independent analysts detected what is thought to be a 20-kiloton blast, equivalent to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and detonated inside the secretive state, the US president urged nations to "stand up" to North Korea, which he said posed "a grave threat to the peace and security of the world".

Last night, at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, France called for the "strengthening of sanctions" against the country, while Gordon Brown condemned the test as "erroneous, misguided and a danger to the world".

The Prime Minister said the act "will undermine prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and will do nothing for North Korea's security".

The UN Security Council last night condemned North Korea's nuclear test as a clear violation of its resolutions.

The council said it would begin work immediately on a new legally binding resolution addressing North Korea's violations.

The council is demanding that North Korea abide by two previous resolutions, which, among other things, banned further nuclear tests and called for a return to six-party talks aimed at eliminating its nuclear programme.

The communist dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, who had previously mothballed his nation's nuclear ambitions in return for food and oil, has moved from negotiation to confrontation, leading both China and Russia, his nation's neighbours, to condemn the test. The atomic explosion occurred yesterday at 9:54am local time (00:54 GMT) in north-east North Korea and was followed a few hours later by the test-firing of three short-range, ground-to-air missiles from the same site where a rocket was launched last month.

An official communiqué was read out on North Korean state radio yesterday, saying another round of underground nuclear testing had been "successfully conducted… as part of measures to enhance the republic's self-defensive deterrent in all directions."

The statement also reported that the test had been "safely conducted at a new higher level in terms of explosive power and control technology".

While the North gave no details of the test's location, South Korean officials said a seismic tremor was detected in the north-eastern region around the town of Kliju – the site of North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006.

At the time of the detonation, an emergency siren sounded in the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles to the north-west, and residents said they felt the ground tremble.

Monitors from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation had been unable to determine if the event had a "nuclear background", said executive secretary Tibor Toth.

However, they did detect a "very close-to-surface type of event" with a magnitude of 4.5, Mr Toth said. That would make it stronger than the October 2006 test, which had a magnitude of about 4.1.

The reported test-firing of three short-range missiles took place a few hours later at the Musudan-ri launch-pad on North Korea's north-east coast, some 30 miles from the nuclear test site.

Japan's coastguard said North Korea had already warned ships on Friday to steer clear of waters off the coast near the launch site, suggesting that Pyongyang was preparing for a missile test.

Last night, South Korean troops were on high alert, but there was no sign that North Korean soldiers were massing along the heavily fortified border dividing the nations.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

A spokesman for the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, said yesterday the test was "a provocation that can never be tolerated". Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, agreed, saying that it was "unacceptable", and both nations demanded action from the UN Security Council.

The rise in tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes comes amid questions about who will succeed the authoritarian Mr Kim, 67, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last August.

North Korea also has custody of two American journalists – accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" – who are set to stand trial on 4 June. How the North Korean people will react to the news of their nation's nuclear progress while its population is starving is not known due to tight reporting restrictions. North Korea still faces chronic food shortages and has relied on outside aid to feed its 23 million people since famine reportedly killed two million in the 1990s.

Last night, China and its neighbours prepared to cope with a North Korea with a small nuclear arsenal. Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai, said: "I think it's become clearer that North Korea's ultimate objective is possessing nuclear weapons, and nothing short of that."

A show of power that is meant to stave off change

THIS second nuclear test by North Korea is a further blow, not just to attempts to denuclearise North Korea but to global non proliferation efforts.

Since it pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, North Korea has been hostile to any attempts to monitor its development of nuclear weapons. It has argued a right to develop nuclear weapons as part of its sovereignty.

That is the official line but, unofficially, it is in a situation where, with the exception of China, it has very few trading partners and a severe shortage of food and fuel.

Since 2003 North Korea has been trying to extend concessions from Japan and South Korea for more shipments of fuel in return for scaling back its nuclear policy.

It is also very concerned about being subjected to the same sort of regime change as we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. It sees a nuclear weapon as being the best way to ensure its sovereignty.

The test has placed the international community in a difficult position. There are few other cards left to play in order to convince North Korea to give up its capabilities.

China is the only country with any economic leverage but, as well as Russia, it has been very wary of using economic sanctions.

Since 2003 there have been a series of very on-and-off talks to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

China has been pushing this as the best solution but, as we have seen, North Korea is not being persuaded to stop. China will be unhappy with this turn of events. It has been pushing for a solution and North Korea is not sticking to the script.

The international community needs to consider quickly what sort of punishment is needed. The UN Security Council is very likely to push for more sanctions. Force is not likely due to commitments elsewhere, and because it is a very sensitive region.

• Dr Marc Lanteigne, is a lecturer in Chinese politics and foreign policy at the University of St Andrews.