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South Koreans watch a TV broadcast of N. Korea's nuclear test at a railway station in Seoul, Monday
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| By israelinsider staff and partners October 9, 2006 |
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North Korea says it performed first-ever successful nuclear test
North Korea boasted Monday that it successfully tested a nuclear weapon, sparking a barrage of global condemnation and threats of harsh sanctions over an underground blast that appeared to thrust the volatile communist state into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations.
Aside from prompting worldwide concern, the explosion shows the importance of swift action on Iran, according to Israeli Senior Labor MK and former IDF brigadier general Ephraim Sneh.
According to Haaretz, Sneh said Monday "that North Korea's test of an atomic weapon reflected the weakness of the international community and 'its inability to address pariah states,' in a direct reference to the Western world's response to the Iranian nuclear threat."
Sneh continued, "Perhaps this case, that of North Korea, will teach them a lesson regarding the Iran issue. Israeli policy should take advantage of what happened, in order to explain and persuade the international community, saying to it, 'Do something, before it's too late.'"
The former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) Uzi Eilam stressed in an interview with the Jerusalem Post how potentially dangerous this situation could become for Israel, especially considering Iran.
"Israel should be very concerned by North Korea's nuclear test," Eilam stated.
"The cause for concern is three-fold. First, as a world democracy, it should be concerned by the threat a North Korean nuclear capability poses to the entire world. Second, It is certainly possible that Pyongyang would share its nuclear know-how with Iran, in return for a sizeable financial reward. North Korea's nuclear program is far more advanced than Iran's. While Iran has only started to produce fissile material, North Korea has done so at least five years ago."
"Third," continued Eilam, "Syria, which is also under heavy international pressure, could look at the North Korean example and decide to actively push for its own nuclear capability, taking into account that it would be a great deterrent to alleviate the pressure and get the international community off its back."
"Today's experiment means that the North Koreans have successfully produced a device whose core is the heart of a nuclear bomb. In order to reach that level, it must be integrated in a weapons system, whether a bomb or a missile warhead. Since it is known that they have been working on missile technology for many years, it is not unforeseeable that North Korea could achieve nuclear weapons capability in 1-2 years."
"The international community's response to the North Korean test is of the utmost importance," stressed Eilam. "The Security Council must impose much harsher sanctions on Pyongyang."
The U.S. called for immediate U.N. Security Council action, and along with Japan was expected to press for more sanctions on the impoverished North.
Although there were conflicting reports on the size of the blast, if details of the test are confirmed, North Korea would be the ninth country known to have nuclear weapons, along with the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, India, Pakistan and Israel.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully "with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent," and that no radiation leaked from the test site.
"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability," the KCNA said, adding that it was "a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation."
The White House said a test defied world opinion against it.
"A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in Northeast Asia," White House spokesman Tony Snow said, adding that the U.S. expects immediate action at the U.N. Security Council.
A Security Council resolution adopted in July after a series of North Korean missile launches imposed limited sanctions on North Korea and demanded the country rejoin international nuclear talks. The North immediately rejected the plea.
Also at the Security Council, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was expected later Monday to be nominated as the next secretary-general of the United Nations. Ban has said he would use the post, which he would assume at year's end, to press for a resolution of the North Korean nuclear standoff.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said the test was a "completely irresponsible act," and its Foreign Ministry warned of international repercussions.
Japan's Abe, in Seoul for a summit meeting, said the "the development and possession of nuclear weapons by North Korea will in a major way transform the security environment in North Asia and we will be entering a new, dangerous nuclear age."
"North Korea will be held responsible for the situation it has created," Abe said.
On Sunday in Beijing, Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao had pledged to work together to avert a North Korean test.
China, the North's closest ally, said on Monday that Beijing "resolutely opposes" the North Korean nuclear test and hopes Pyongyang will return to disarmament talks.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the test would make it difficult for Seoul to maintain its engagement policy with its communist neighbor.
"This is a warning as well as my prediction," Roh told journalists after his summit with Abe.
The two Koreas, which fought a 1950-53 war that ended in a cease-fire but no peace treaty, are divided by the world's most heavily armed border. However, they have made strides toward reconciliation since their leaders met at their first-and-only summit in 2000.
The South is reconsidering plans to ship 4,000 tons of cement of emergency relief to the North for floods it suffered in mid-July, a Unification Ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.
Impoverished and isolated North Korea has relied on foreign aid to feed its 23 million people since its state-run farming system collapsed in the 1990s following decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies.
The test could further harden international consensus against North Korea, said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a North Korea expert at Tokyo's Waseda University.
"Japan and the United States will further strengthen overall cooperation ... including missile defense," he said. "The nuclear test will also bring Japan, China and South Korea closer, though political differences will remain."
The North has refused for a year to attend international talks aimed at persuading it to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The country pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 after U.S. officials accused it of a secret nuclear program, allegedly violating an earlier nuclear pact between Washington and Pyongyang.
The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs. It insists its nuclear program is necessary to deter a U.S. invasion.
The North has active missile programs, but it isn't believed to have an atomic bomb design small and light enough to be mounted on a long-range rocket that could strike targets as far as the U.S.
In Pyongyang, North Koreans went about their lives as usual Monday with no signs of heightened alert. Red flags of the North's Korean Workers' Party draped buildings and lampposts to mark Tuesday's 61st anniversary of the party's founding.
The country's state TV read the official report about the test during a regular newscast. The item wasn't the top story, and there were no images shown of the test.
The AP contributed to this article.
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