Early readings of North Korea's nuclear test Monday show it was three to six times more powerful than any tests from that country before. President Obama is calling it "a highly provocative act." NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
By Ian Johnston, Eric Baculinao, John Newland and Arata Yamamoto, NBC News
North Korea declared Tuesday that it had conducted a test of a nuclear bomb after the detonation was detected by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The test?was the the third conducted by the isolated?authoritarian regime since 2006, and made good on a?Jan. 24 pledge by?North Korea's top military?organ, the National Defense Commission,?in January.
The test was met with condemnation from around the globe. While the White House called it a "highly provocative act" that warrants "further swift and credible action from the international community. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Beijing was "strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed," to the move by its neighbor and long-time Communist ally.
South Korea and Japan called emergency meetings of their top national security officials, while the UN Security Council convened an emergency session hours to forge a response.
The explosion was registered as a 5.1-magnitude seismic event by the USGS at 9:57 p.m. ET Monday.?
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement that it had assessed that North Korea "probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion" with a yield of "several kilotons."
In a statement, President Barack Obama described the nuclear test as a "highly provocative act" following what he described as?a?"ballistic missile launch" by North Korea?on Dec. 12.
Obama said the test "undermines regional stability, violates North Korea's obligations under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, contravenes its [international] commitments ? and increases the risk of proliferation."
"North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security," Obama said.?
U.S. officials have previously told NBC News that North Korea has up to a "few dozen" nuclear weapons that could be fitted on ballistic missiles, far more than had previously been believed.
Kim Kwang Hyon / AP
On a large television screen in front of Pyongyang's railway station, a North Korean state television broadcaster announces Tuesday that North Korea has conducted a nuclear bomb test.
Obama on Tuesday said that "the danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community," adding that the U.S. would work with the international community to "pursue firm action."
The president will speak about North Korea during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, emphasizing that "the only way North Korea will rejoin the world community is if they stop these threats," a senior administration official said.
Speaking at a farewell ceremony at the Pentagon, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta?said the North's actions "represent a serious threat to the United States of America, and we have to be prepared to deal with that."
'Unacceptable threat'
South Korea's government said in a statement that "the nuclear test poses a direct challenge to the whole international community as well as an unacceptable threat to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."
It said the government would stand firm in that it "will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea" and added that it will "also accelerate expanding its military capability, including deploying at an early stage its extended-range missiles, currently being developed, which cover all of North Korea."
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test was "extremely regrettable and we strongly protest this act."
Japan launched several planes to test for nuclear particles in the air, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said. He described the test as a "major provocation not only towards the safety of our country but also against the international community."
Toru Hanai / Reuters
Japan Meteorological Agency's earthquake and tsunami observations division director Akira Nagai points at a graph of ground motion waveform data observed in the morning in Japan during a news conference in Tokyo Feb. 12. Seismic activities detected in North Korea may be the result of a nuclear test, Japan's top government spokesman said.
The test prompted the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday, after which it promised to "begin work immediately" to draft a new resolution against the North.
After the Dec. 12 launch, the Security Council passed resolution 2087, which called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and any weapons and allow verification; to conduct no more launches using ballistic missile technology; and to conduct no more nuclear tests.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the latest test was a "clear and grave violation."
China 'humiliated'
Andrei Lankov, a veteran analyst of North Korea based in Seoul's Kookmin Unversity, said there was a "possibly highly significant new turn in the story of North Korea's nuclear program."
Elizabeth Dalziel / AP
From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.
"China has been humiliated,"?he said.
"This time, China explicitly warned North Korea against conducting the test, but they were ignored," he added. "A Chinese government newspaper said two weeks ago that in the case of a nuclear test, China might significantly reduce its aid to North Korea. China is North Korea's major source of aid."
However, Lankov, who attended Kim Il Sung University in North Korea in 1985, said it remained to be seen "to what extent they [the Chinese authorities] are prepared to confront the North."
"They are not happy about nuclear adventurism. At the same time though, a collapsing non-nuclear North Korea is far worse than a nuclear but stable North Korea,"?he said.
In Washington, U.S. officials called on China to put even more pressure on the North.
"We must insist that the international community, and especially North Korea's neighbor China, apply meaningful sanctions and significant pressure on North Korea for its destabilizing provocations," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)?said.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) expressed similar sentiments and suggested that the U.S. needs "a completely new approach to dealing with this growing national security threat."
Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter also called on China and added that there was "nothing more provocative than what the North Koreans did."
But how far China is willing to go is anyone's guess.
Lankov dismissed the idea that the test might lead to an armed conflict.
"Similar events in inter-Korean relations tend to happen every year or two, with little or no overall impact,"?Lankov said. "It has been an open secret for 25 years that North Korea intends to become a full nuclear power, with a delivery system that allows it to threaten the United States."
"The North Korean government will under no circumstances surrender their nuclear program. First, they need nuclear weapons as a deterrent -- and who can blame them for not wanting to follow the sorry fate of Saddam [Hussein] and Colonel [Moammar] Gadhafi?"
North wants U.S. recognition
Professor Yan Xuetong, a top international security analyst at China's Tsinghua University, said "the key to the North Korean nuclear challenge is in the hands of the United States, not China."
"China is certainly opposed to North Korea's latest nuclear test and opposed to North Korea becoming a nuclear power, but the test was aimed at the Unite States with the aim of forcing the U.S. to normalize relations with North Korea, but if the U.S. doesn't want to play the of game of trade-off, then there is not much that China can do,"?he said.
Yan, who closely follows government policy thinking on the issue, argued that "the role of economic sanctions is limited,"?suggesting China will not stop economic assistance to North Korea because of the latest test.
"What China should do is to act as bridge between North Korea and the United States so that they will agree to a trade-off, with the U.S. granting recognition to the North Korean government in exchange for it giving up its nuclear program,"?he said.
"If the U.S. views North Korea's nuclear threat with the same seriousness as it views Iran's nuclear threat, then there will be hope for solving the North Korea's nuclear problem,"?he said.
Related:
China: North would 'pay a heavy price for nuclear test'
N. Korea propaganda video shows US city in flames?
Show of force: US, South Korea hold naval drills
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:11 PM EST
brandon phillips summerfest summerfest fidel castro rick santorum ozzie guillen castro comments phish
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.