North Korea conducts second nuclear launch test
Soon after Hillary’s threats and just in time for Memorial Day, Kim Jong Il conducts second nuclear test.
North Korea said it conducted its second test of a nuclear device Monday morning and that the explosion was bigger than the first device it tested in October 2006.
The country’s state media announced the test at noon local time, about two hours after defense monitors in South Korea detected an "artificial earthquake" in the same place where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, a remote mountainous area of North Hamgyeong province in the country’s northeast. North Korea didn’t announce the location.
The South Korean monitors reported the latest test recorded a seismic reading of 4.5 on the Richter scale, compared to a reading of 3.8 for the 2006 test.
In its statement, North Korea’s state media said the test answered "problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons." It also said the test would "contribute to defending the sovereignty of the nation."
The test is the latest sign of an aggressive turn in North Korean behavior that officials and analysts in the U.S., South Korea and elsewhere believe is a sign that the country’s military has grown in power since the illness of dictator Kim Jong Il last August.
On April 5, North Korea fired a multi-stage, long-range missile, which flew across Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. It claims the rocket carried a satellite to space.
After the United Nations Security Council issued a statement criticizing North Korea for the launch, Pyongyang responded by announcing on April 29 that wanted an apology from the council or that it would soon test more missiles and a nuclear device.
Since the April 5 launch, North Korea has also pulled out of six-nation aid-for-disarmament talks and kicked out international weapons inspectors. It has also detained with little explanation two American journalists it claims were infringing on its territory and a South Korean businessman working in an industrial park the two countries jointly run.
U.S. officials in recent weeks have said Washington hasn’t faced such uncertainty in dealing with North Korea in 15 years, when Mr. Kim was in the midst of consolidating power in the wake of the death of his father, North Korea’s founder and longtime leader Kim Il Sung.
The elder Kim began the nuclear weapons program in the 1970s. North Korea has used the development of nuclear weapons to build its own military strength, drive a weapons-sale program and as a diplomatic tool for extracting economic aid and security concessions from other countries.
I fear for the girls.