Defiant DPRK tests nuke, global patience

• Source: The Global Times
• [01:25 May 26 2009]
• Comments

By Qiu Wei

A Republic of Korea meteorological official briefs reporters in Seoul yesterday with recordings of seismic waves from its northern neighbor’s nuclear test. The detonation defied international pressure to rein in its nuclear program after years of six-nation disarmament talks. Photo: AFP

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stunned and angered the world by conducting an underground nuclear test yesterday in defiance of a UN resolution condemning the country.

And hours after the blast, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it was “resolutely opposed” to its neighbor’s actions.

Residents in boarder regions also expressed worry and reported drops in trade volumn.

The UN resolution came after the DPRK launched a rocket in April that many countries believed to be a long-range missile test. The DPRK responded to the UN by kicking its inspectors out of the country and vowing to restart its nuclear efforts.

It held true to that promise yesterday.

Yesterday’s test of a nuclear bomb, believed to be many times more powerful than the country’s first, was followed later in the day by three short-range missile launches yesterday, the Republic of Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

A Global Times survey yesterday of 20 leading Chinese scholars on international issues appeared to indicate a divided view of whether China should support the international community to press for strict sanctions against the DPRK. Ten said yes, while 10 were opposed.

Six of the scholars said the test signified a complete failure of the six-party talks to get the DPRK to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but the remaining 14 said there was still hope for the six-party talks. And 13 said they believed the DPRK hasn’t exhausted its options and still has room to bargain.

The surveyed included Wang Jisi of Peking University, Shen Dingli of Fudan University, Zhang Liankui of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, and Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University.

After seismic tremors near a DPRK nuclear-testing site were detected by geological departments throughout the world, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the DPRK “successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test … as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way.”

Little other information about the test, including its official location, was announced, but the KCNA did say, “The latest nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology.”

Ren Zhongxuan, director of the Seismological Bureau of Yanbian, near the DPRK, told the Global Times that a 4.5-magnitude earthquake was detected at 8:54 am, centered at Kilchu, a county in the DPRK’s North Hamgyong province, 180 kilometers from Yanbian, at a depth of about 10 kilometers.

Officials in the ROK said the “artificial earthquake” occurred about 10 kilometers from the site where the DPRK staged its first nuclear test in October 2006.

“We can say it was an underground explosion,” Ren said. “Eight counties and cities in the Yanbian region felt the impact of its tremor, though its power is hard to judge now.”

A Seoul official speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP yesterday said that the DPRK informed the US and China of its nuclear test in advance.

“The DPRK ignored universal opposition by the international community and once again conducted a nuclear test,” said the statement by China’s Foreign Ministry, which also voiced China’s strong demands that the DPRK live up to its commitment of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, stop any activity that may worsen the situation and return to the six-party talks.

China, Japan, the ROK, Russia and the US had been at the table with the DPRK since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to halt its atomic programs in exchange for energy and security guarantees.