International   

N. Korea conducts second nuclear test

Pyongyang: Unfazed by global pressure, a defiant North Korea today conducted a second “more powerful” nuclear test and test-fired three missiles, triggering an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting and calls for a global “action” against a “reckless” Pyongyang.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said the North “successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way“.

Reacting sharply to the test, U.S. President Barack Obama said Pyongyang’s attempts at developing nuclear weapons was a “threat to international peace and security”.

“North Korea’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile programme, constitute a threat to international peace and security,” he said in a statement.

“The danger posed by North Korea’s threatening activities warrants action by the international community,” he said as the reclusive Communist nation’s neighbours, South Korea and Japan condemned Pyongyang’s action. North’s neighbour and close ally China said it was “resolutely opposed” to the test.

The Security Council, which sanctioned the North for its previous test, planned to meet later on Monday in New York.

Russian experts said the North Korean blast was up to 20 times more powerful than the its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006. Some South Korean experts said the power of the second blast was comparable to the bombs which hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The North said the second test was conducted “on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control,” Xinhua news agency quoted KCNA as saying.

Soon after the nuclear test, North Korea also test-fired three short-range missiles, said South Korea’s military.

Yonhap news agency quoted sources as saying Pyongyang fired three ground-to-air missiles with a range of 130 km. Monday’s underground nuclear test follows a long-range rocket launch last month, that prompted condemnation from the Security Council.

North Korea warned on April 29 that it would conduct a second test protesting against the U.N. Security Council’s rebuke for its April 5 rocket launch.

The Security Council had imposed sanctions on North Korea and banned the country from all activities related to its nuclear weapons programme following its first test.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, after meeting South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan in Hanoi, called the test “a challenge to the whole of the international community”.

Japan, South Korea and the U.S. — along with China and Russia — have been negotiating since 2003 to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for energy aid and security guarantees. — PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Nepal sworn in Prime Minister
Council polls soon in Vavuniya, Jaffna districts
India can join the gas pipeline deal: Iran
N. Korea conducts second nuclear test
A planned attack, say Vienna police

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu