April 2013 News 15: NORTH KOREA CONDUCTS NUKE TEST

NORTH KOREA CONDUCTS NUKE TEST

[North Korea says that test was conducted to protect national security against US hostile policy]

North Korea on February 12,  2013 conducted a widely anticipated nuclear test amid rising diplomatic tension over the communist country's nuclear capabilities and growing apprehension about peace in the Korean peninsula.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on February 12, 2013 that it has successfully conducted a third nuclear test to safeguard national security against US hostile policy," the official North Korean KCNA news agency reported.

The nuclear test was carried out with simultaneous statements from capital Pyongyang that the isolated and poor country will continue launching powerful long range rockets.

The KCNA said in a statement that the test-the third nuclear test after 2006 and 2009-was part of the country's practical measures of counteraction "to defend the security and sovereignty against US hostile policy, which it claimed had violated DPRK's right to launch satellite for peaceful purposes."

The statement added that the test was carried out on a "smaller and light A-bomb unlike previous ones yet with great explosive power."

CHINESE REACTION

Close ally China's reaction was framed in angry language. "The Chinese government is firmly opposed to this act," the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement, adding that it was in disregard of the opposition of the international community'.

WORLD POWERS DECRY TEST, SEEK ACTION

US President Barack Obama called North Korea's most powerful nuclear test yet 'provocative' and vowed to defend the US and its allies against the "threat to US national security and to international peace and security."

Obama said the nuclear test did not make North Korea more secure and called for 'swift' and 'credible' international action in response. He vowed in a written statement that Washington would remain vigilant in the face of the underground detonation by the Stalinist state and steadfast in its defence commitments to its allies in Asia. Britain condemned the nuclear test and sought a 'robust response' from the UN Security Council.

Russia too condemned the new nuclear test, saying Moscow considered it a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the Interfax news agency reported.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the nuclear test posed a 'grave threat' to his country. The nuclear test looks likely to set back any news diplomatic drive from the US, which had seen glimmers of hope with the new cast of leaders in the region.

The crisis comes just as all three key regional players-China, Japan and South Korea-go through transitions to leaders, who in varying ways have hinted they are seeking new ways to handle the regional pariah.
          The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, condemned the test as a 'deeply destabilising' provocation.

NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES

Question on the weapons programme answered. Is North Korea a nuclear weapons state?

No, or at least not yet. It conducted confirmed nuclear

tests in 2006 and 2009. Both were believed to be fairly crude plutonium devices with relatively low yields, and the 2006 test was widely seen as a dud.

Where has the apparent test been held?

The 2006 and 2009 tests were conducted at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in a remote mountainous region in the northeast, about 100 km from the border with China and 200 km from the Russian border. The present seismic event was in the same area.

What will be the impact of a third test?

Any type of North Korean nuclear test is a trigger for global concern.  Diplomats said the UN Security Council would convene. A UN resolution warned of 'significant action' if the North proceeded with a nuclear test.

US Slap, Curb 12 Companies

The United States has slapped non-proliferation-sanctions against 12  foreign companies, including four from China, under an act that prohibits transferring of equipment and technology to Iran, North Korea and Syria. The sanctions have also been

imposed on four Chinese companies, which include BST Technology and Trade Company