North Korea Nuclear weapon test

25.05.09 / North Korean / Author: asia news ia

BBC report

North Korea map

Russia try to detect any radiation come to their country

It appears to have been a much more powerful blast than North Korea’s first nuclear test, in October 2006.

The test would “contribute to safeguard the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism”, the communique said

The North gave no details of the test location, but South Korean officials said that a seismic tremor was detected in the north-eastern region around the town of Kilju - the site of North Korea’s first nuclear test.

A US official in Washington, who spoke to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said Pyongyang had given less than an hour’s notice of the test, and had made no demands.

The message was conveyed through the “New York channel”, the official added, referring to contacts between North Korean diplomats and US officials at the UN.

Geological recordings of the tremor suggest it was much larger than the 2006 test. That was backed up by the Russian defence ministry, which detected a blast of up to 20 kilotons - comparable to the American bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Just hours after the test, North Korea appeared to have test-fired two short-range missiles, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, but this was not confirmed.

In a strongly worded statement, President Obama said the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles threatened peace and was in “blatant defiance of the United Nations Security Council”.

The North says it remains under military threat from its historic rival, South Korea, and South Korea’s allies, primarily the US - citing such examples as the annual US-South Korean military exercises undertaken in South Korea.

It says it is entitled to retain a military deterrent.

Six-party disarmament talks involving the US, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas have stalled over Pyongyang’s failure to agree how information it has handed over on its nuclear activities and facilities should be verified.

Pyongyang pulled out of the talks last month, in protest against international condemnation of its rocket launch.

North Korea

Population:

22,665,345 (July 2009 est.)

North Korea have poor economy GDP - real growth rate is -2.3% (2008 est.)

But we still look at their building like modern.

They faces chronic economic problems. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Large-scale military spending draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption. Industrial and power output have declined in parallel from pre-1990 levels. Severe flooding in the summer of 2007 aggravated chronic food shortages caused by on-going systemic problems including a lack of arable land, collective farming practices, and persistent shortages of tractors and fuel. Large-scale international food aid deliveries have allowed the people of North Korea to escape widespread starvation since famine threatened in 1995, but the population continues to suffer from prolonged malnutrition and poor living conditions.