North Korea said on Monday it had safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, flying in the face of a warning from the United Nations Security Council and opening its crippled economy to the risk of fresh sanctions.
South Korea’s military ordered the army to step up a state of alert after Pyongyang announced its first-ever nuclear test, which brought unusual criticism from fellow communist China.
Pyongyang’s move, which came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived for a visit to Seoul, could heighten regional tensions and may come as a new foreign policy blow to United States President George Bush ahead of mid-term elections.
The news pushed the dollar to a seven-month high against the yen and helped shove oil above $60 a barrel. In Seoul, the won fell more than one percent to one-month lows and the main stock index tumbled as much as 3,6%.
However, analysts did not expect a long-term economic impact.
”The economy of North Korea is virtually closed from the rest of the world and its regional impact won’t be very significant unless there was a major military confrontation,” said Wang Qing, an economist at Bank of America in Hong Kong.
The US Geological Survey said it had detected a 4,2 magnitude tremor in North Korea at 10.35am local time (1.35am GMT) on Monday, confirming a similar report from South Korea.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said there was no leak or danger from its test, which South Korean officials said may have been conducted around Gilju, in the north-east of the country and close to the border with China.
”The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100%,” 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 does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea gave China a 20-minute warning of its test and China immediately told the United States, Japan and South Korea.
China says move ‘brazen’
The UN Security Council last week urged North Korea not to carry out a test, warning of unspecified consequences if it did.
Japan’s foreign minister said Tokyo was considering further sanctions on North Korea and might push for a fresh UN Security Council resolution if the nuclear test is confirmed.
”The prime minister’s office has been working on options for additional sanctions over the past two or three days,” Taro Aso told reporters. ”So probably Japan would take those actions, but it would have to decide which options to take,” he said.
The UN Security Council was due to meet on Monday to officially nominate South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary general of the United Nations, at which time they would likely discuss North Korea’s move.
China, the closest reclusive North Korea has to an ally, described the nuclear test as ”brazen” and called on its neighbour to stop any action that would worsen the situation.
Seoul and Beijing — leery of instability on the Korea peninsula — have previously cautioned against backing the North into a corner, but Tokyo backs a hard line toward Pyongyang.
However, all three agree that Pyongyang should end its nearly year-long boycott of six-country talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme.
”I don’t think North Korea is trying [for] an escalation that could lead to a military confrontation. … I think they’re trying to respond from a corner,” former UN weapons inspector David Albright told CNN television.
North Korea announced its intention to test a nuclear device last week, saying its hand was 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.
”North Korea is using this claim as a bargaining chip to gain leverage so that Washington will take them seriously,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and a former Indonesian presidential adviser.
Zhang Liangui, an expert on North Korea at the Central Party School, a top think tank in Beijing, said it was unlikely Japan would seek to become a nuclear weapons state, because of US opposition, but other states may be encouraged to proliferate.
”It will be like America, where everybody thinks he has the right to own a gun,” he said. ”The first country to be encouraged by this will be Iran, and then other countries in the Middle East.” – Reuters