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N Korea carries out nuke test
09/10/2006 07:22 - (SA)
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| Protesters burn flags during a rally in Seoul, after North Korea said it had performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test. (Lee Jin-man, AP) |
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Seoul - North Korea announced on Monday it had carried out its first test of an atomic bomb, defying international pressure that tried to keep the secretive regime from becoming one of the world's nuclear powers.
The mid-morning, underground blast confirmed Pyongyang's claim last year that it had developed a nuclear weapon and underlined leader Kim Jong-Il's willingness to ignore the demands and threats of the global community.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the mouthpiece of one of the most impoverished and isolated nations in the world, announced the test as a "historic event" aimed at bettering peace and security.
Crisis talks
But capitals and stock markets reacted with worry and dismay. Share prices across Asia tumbled, nations announced immediate crisis talks and even China, the North's main supporter and ally, officially condemned the test.
The test came just while new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hawkish politician who rose to prominence at home by taking a hard line on the North Korean regime, was to hold his first summit with his South Korean counterpart.
There was no immediate reaction from the United States, where US President George W Bush has made the fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons a centrepiece of his foreign policy.
No radioactive leak
"The field of scientific research in the DPRK (North Korea) successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions," KCNA said, adding that there was no danger of a radioactive leak.
"The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology, 100%," it said.
"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the (North Korean army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability.
"It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."
3.58 magnitude seismic tremor
Although no outside nation has so far confirmed that a nuclear weapon had been tested, officials in neighbouring South Korea quoted by Yonhap news agency said the test appeared to have been carried out at 01:36 GMT at Hwadaeri near Kilju on North Korea's northeast coast.
The South Korean presidential office said the state intelligence agency had detected a 3.58 magnitude seismic tremor at the time.
A South Korean lawmaker, citing intelligence officials, said it appeared to have been conducted in a horizontal tunnel in a 360-metre mountain near a missile base in the Stalinist country's northeast.
UN call to abandon test plans
The test came just three days after a unanimous call from the UN security council, including China, called on the North to abandon plans for testing a nuclear weapon.
China - the main provider of aid to the North and its chief political ally - said that Pyongyang "brazenly undertook a nuclear test," while "ignoring the general concern of the international community".
"The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition," the foreign ministry said in a statement read on Chinese television.
- AFP
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