SEOUL: North Korea conducted a nuclear test yesterday, triggering an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the reclusive state’s defiant act and drawing global condemnation.
US President Barack Obama said Pyongyang’s bid to develop nuclear weapons was a threat to international peace and security and the international community would need to respond.
The North’s neighbor and long-time benefactor, China, said it was “resolutely opposed” to the test.
Russia, which called the test a threat to regional security, said the blast was about equal in power to the US atom bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki in World War II, or about 20 times larger than the North’s one kiloton test in 2006.
But the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization contested that, saying the magnitude of the latest test was “slightly higher than in 2006, measuring 4.52 on the Richter scale, while in 2006 it was 4.1.”
Raising tensions further, North Korea test fired three short-range missiles hours later, Yonhap news agency said.
“North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose a grave threat to the peace and security of the world, and I strongly condemn their reckless action,” Obama said at the White House. “The United States and the international community must take action in response.”
Obama, who said the moves were in “blatant defiance” of the Security Council, said Washington will be working in the days ahead with the Council and other nations that have been trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Officials in Washington and Beijing said North Korea had warned their governments of the test about an hour before detonation but neighbor Japan said it was not given advance notice. Germany, France, Britain and the EU condemned Pyongyang’s act, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply worried.” The UN Security Council was summoned for an emergency session.
The latest test will confound the international community, which has for years tried a mixture of huge aid pledges and tough economic sanctions to persuade the impoverished North to give up efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.
It is also bound to raise concerns about proliferation, a major worry of the United States, which has in the past accused Pyongyang of trying to sell its nuclear know-how to states such as Syria.
Iran, which the West accuses of secretly developing atomic weapons and which conducted a missile test last week, said it had no missile or nuclear cooperation with North Korea. NATO called for North Korea to refrain from raising tensions further. “These irresponsible actions by Pyongyang pose a serious challenge to peace, security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” the NATO statement said.
Analysts said North Korea’s test also will force Washington to acknowledge that its leverage over the unpredictable state is at best limited. The United States must hope China will put pressure on Pyongyang, despite its fear of destabilizing its poor, secretive neighbor.
South Korea’s main stock market fell more than 6 percent at one stage but its decline was short-lived. Analysts said investors were used to the North’s saber-rattling, even as it became more aggressive, and would likely panic only if there was military conflict on a peninsul.
