North Korea Carries Out Nuclear Test

How's that diplomacy working with North Korea? The North Korean regime continues to show that it has its own interest in mind and could care less what the rest of the world thinks. It carried out the nuclear test because of what the North Koreans think they can get from other countries.

The test was carried out May 25 and appears to have been quite successful. Based on the earthquake resulting from the detonation, it is believed that the nuclear blast was between 10-20 kilotons (or on par with the weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The test was safely conducted “on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control,” the agency said. “The results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology.”

The test appeared to have caught South Korea and the United States off guard, and the news hit just as South Korea’s government and people were mourning the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun.

Hours after the test was reported, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified intelligence source in Seoul, said the North had test-fired three short-range, surface-to-air missiles. The three missiles were launched toward the sea between North Korea and Japan and had a range of 80 miles, according to the news agency. They were fired from a base not far from the nuclear test site in northeast North Korea, Yonhap said.

President Obama reacted swiftly to the nuclear test, warning the North to retreat from its defiance of the international community.

“Today, North Korea said that it has conducted a nuclear test in violation of international law,” Mr. Obama said in a statement early Monday. “It appears to also have attempted a short-range missile launch. These actions, while not a surprise given its statements and actions to date, are a matter of grave concern to all nations. North Korea’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security.

“By acting in blatant defiance of the United Nations Security Council, North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community. North Korea’s behavior increases tensions and undermines stability in Northeast Asia. Such provocations will only serve to deepen North Korea’s isolation. It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery,” the statement said.

China said it was “resolutely opposed” to the test, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia and Japan said the U.N. Security Council would hold an emergency meeting Monday.

Geological authorities in the United States, Japan and South Korea reported that the North’s test triggered an earth tremor with a magnitude of between 4.5 and 5.3. The tremor emanated from Kilju, the same area where the North Korea carried out a test in October 2006.

The force of the latest blast was 10 to 20 kilotons, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Alexander Drobyshevsky, told RIA-Novosti. It was far stronger than an estimated 0.8 kiloton detonation reported in 2006. A kiloton is equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT.

This isn't the first test the regime conducted, and a previous test in 2006 was considered a fizzle. The fact that the regime carried out another test gives some insight into the amount of weapons grade uranium it has available to use for weapons. That it was successful shows that the North Koreans figured out what went wrong with the prior test and solved the problem.

It also shows that the US and other intel services didn't catch the North Korean preparations for the test and that's a serious concern because it's a gaping hole in their capabilities.

President Obama can go to the UN all he wants, along with everyone else, but what exactly is he or the UN going to do. It's been an abject failure in dealing with North Korea up until now, and that's not going to change. Likewise, the IAEA failed to prevent North Korea from going nuclear, and has been incapable of disarming the nuclear infrastructure.

The regime also carried out tests on several missile systems, which is on the heels of a provocative missile test carried out two months ago, which highlighted the regime's abilities to fire missiles capable of hitting US and Japanese interests in the Pacific.

There is nothing that the US appears willing or capable of doing to deter the North Koreans from continuing down this path of nuclear militarization.

It's also a continuing test of the Obama Administration, which appears incapable of realizing that the North Koreans are trying to extort billions on concessions from the US and the rest of the world while refusing to give up its nuclear program.

(Headline adjusted to reflect that the evidence points to a successful test)