North Korean Atomic Bomb Test: Russia Warns Against “hysterical” Reaction

They have been hinting one was coming, but it looks like full speed ahead for the tyrant. Now this isn't the first test and it remains to be seen how successful this one was, but clearly this is a significant escalation the part of North Korea By the way here is a link the USGS which noticed the "earthquake".

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea said it conducted its first nuclear test in three years and also launched three short- range missiles, acts President Barack Obama said constitute a “threat to international peace and security.”

The United Nations Security Council will meet later today in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Japan and South Korea condemned the nuclear test and called for the UN body to take action against North Korea. South Korea’s stocks and currency fell. China said it “resolutely opposes” the test, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

“North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community,” Obama said in an e-mailed statement from the White House. “Such provocations will only serve to deepen North Korea’s isolation.”

The tests, which fulfill a threat made last month, complicate Obama’s efforts to persuade the impoverished country to abandon nuclear weapons development in exchange for economic aid. Kim Jong Il’s government expelled nuclear inspectors and pulled out of disarmament talks after the Security Council censured North Korea for its April 5 missile launch.

“The suddenness of the nuclear test shows North Korea following military, not diplomatic logic,” said Hideshi Takesada, a professor specializing in Korean issues at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies. “They’re showing their nuclear strategies are being finalized. They want to be acknowledged as a nuclear power.”

Underground Explosion

The official North Korea Announcement:

"The Korean Central News Agency released the following report on Monday in connection with one more successful underground nuclear test in the DPRK.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea 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 as requested by its scientists and technicians.

"The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and 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 successful nuclear test is greatly inspiring the army and people of the DPRK all out in the 150-day campaign, intensifying the drive for effecting a new revolutionary surge to open the gate to a thriving nation.

"The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the region around it with the might of (the military first policy) Songun."

How powerful was it:

North Korea announced its underground nuclear test a little more than an hour after the U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.7 seismic disturbance at the site of North Korea's first nuclear test.

There was no immediate information on the yield of the weapon used in Monday's test. The Russian Defense Ministry said the explosion was between 10 to 20 kilotons. The U.S. State Department said it was analyzing the data.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency would say only that the latest test was safely conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control."

U.S. intelligence estimated that the first North Korean test -- in October 2006 -- produced an explosion equal to less than 1,000 tons of TNT. The low yield was a fraction of the size of the bombs the United States dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.

If true that is also a significant expansion of their power.

Russian Reaction:

If North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il hoped to panic southerners, or provoke America and others into rash and aggressive action, he will probably be disappointed. A Russian official on Monday gave warning against any “hysterical” reaction to the latest test by North Korea, but it seems likely that outsiders will not offer Mr Kim the devoted interest that he evidently craves.

What if they put one on top of this?



The aggressive actions of North Korea continue.