NORTH KOREA raised nuclear tensions in Asia yesterday with its second atomic weapons test, earning the isolated Stalinist state the wrath of its neighbours, who said Pyongyang was playing a dangerous game and seriously undermining peace and stability in the region.
The test, at 10am local time, and the provocative launch of a short-range missile soon afterwards, came just two months after the North abandoned six-party talks with both Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the US aimed at convincing the impoverished state to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for massive economic and food support, as well as an end to the country’s status as a rogue state.
North Korea’s nuclear programme is most likely very rough and ready, and the country lacks the ability to miniaturise its nukes into a warhead. But a nuclear bomb is a nuclear bomb, and the country’s neighbours are extremely worried.
The country, led by Kim Jong-il, who is believed to be ailing and facing a difficult succession issue, has long argued that it has no choice but to build an atomic arsenal to protect itself from a hostile world, but recent controversial moves by the Stalinist enclave have all been unilateral, and come despite a softer tone from Washington.
North Korea was furious after the international community tightened sanctions following its launch of a rocket in April. Pyongyang said that launch put a communications satellite into space, but western nations said it was a disguised long-range missile.
The official KCNA news agency announced that the country had “successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25th as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way” and it was “safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control”.
The US Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.7-magnitude quake in an area close to where the test site is thought to be.
North Korea’s only meaningful ally, China, appears to have been wrong-footed by the nuclear test, just as it was in 2006, and is again furious. Beijing stopped short of censuring its neighbour after April’s launch, but it issued a strong statement yesterday following the nuclear test.
“The DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] ignored universal opposition of the international community and once more conducted the nuclear test. The Chinese government is resolutely opposed to it,” the Beijing government said in a statement run on the Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese demanded that North Korea live up to its commitment to a nuke-free Korean Peninsula, stop any activity that may worsen the situation and return to the six-party talks, which China is brokering. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, said the test was unacceptable and a violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, said North Korea probably decided to push its nuclear weapons programme as it felt it had not got enough recognition from those very same talks.
North Korea wants “security guarantees from the US and other countries, but no one gave them that kind of guarantees. They cannot get anything they want from the six-party talks,” said Mr Yan.
Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korean studies at the Korea University in Seoul, said the test was an attempt to bring Washington’s attention to the North Korean issue.