Skip to main content

North Korea conducts underground nuclear test



North Korea announced plans last month to carry out its third nuclear test, and it followed through on the threat today. Following initial reports of a 5.1-magnitude artificial tremor in the northeast of the country, the South Korean government confirmed that North Korea had tested a nuclear device and condemned the incident as an "unacceptable threat to regional peace and stability."


United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has released a statement condemning the nuclear test as a "clear and grave violation" of UN resolutions. President Obama echoed the outcry in his own statement, calling the test a "highly provocative act" that "undermines regional stability."


"A miniaturized nuclear device with greater explosive force."


Following confirmation from the South, Reuters reported comments from North Korea's state-run KCNA claiming a successful underground test of a "miniaturized nuclear device with greater explosive force." The KCNA later announced the test on national television, saying that "it was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level with the use of a smaller and lighter A-bomb than the previous ones, yet with great explosive power." The broadcast also claimed that "the test did not give any adverse effect to the surrounding ecological environment."


South Korea estimates the blast as between 6-7 kilotons, around a third as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. The US and Japan have launched planes to try and ascertain whether the blast used plutonium, as with the previous two tests, or highly-enriched uranium. It appears to have been bigger than prior attempts; data from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization showed a 4.9 magnitude for the blast next to the 4.52 recorded in 2009.


Using coordinates from the US Geological Survey, the epicenter of the tremor can be seen on Google Maps close to a route designated "Nuclear Test Road" in the northeast of the country. Google uses crowdsourced data for its maps of North Korea, which it first rolled out in detail last month.The data also tags North Korean "gulag" prison camps as well as nuclear facilities; today's test was conducted close to the location of the country's previous two attempts.





North Korean TV recently showed a diagram of the nuclear test tunnel in Punggye-ri, believed to be about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) long. It was used in the 2009 test; its spiral design is said to help contain the blast and prevent a repeat of the radioactive leak that occurred with the straight tunnel employed in the 2006 test.





Yonhap quotes a South Korean official as saying that North Korea alerted the US and China yesterday of its plans to test a nuclear device. The test will spark fears of heightened tensions in the region and beyond; days ago, South Korea put its military on alert over the prospect of a test, and pledged to strike pre-emptively at any sign of Northern intent to use a nuclear weapon.


While saber-rattling between the two countries — still technically at war under a 60-year truce — is commonplace, the North's recent satellite launch and apparent miniaturization of a nuclear bomb raise the stakes considerably. There is, however, no evidence that the country possesses the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a rocket.


This post has been updated to reflect a developing situation.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has
Post a Comment
Read more

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif
1 comment
Read more