Seoul, South Korea – North Korea said today it had performed its first- ever nuclear-weapons test, setting off an underground blast in defiance of international warnings and intense diplomatic activity aimed at heading off such a move.
The North Korean statement said there was no radioactive leakage from the test site.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a seismic event with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2 in northeastern North Korea that coincided with the country’s announced nuclear test.
The Colorado-based agency said it was unable to tell whether the event was the result of an atomic explosion or a natural earthquake.
An official at South Korea’s seismic monitoring center said a 3.6-magnitude tremor felt at the time North Korea said it conducted the test was not a natural occurrence.
Australia also said there was seismic confirmation that North Korea conducted a nuclear test.
However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said information still needs to be collected and analyzed to determine whether North Korea truly conducted its first nuclear test.
Japan’s top government spokesman said that if confirmed, the North Korean test would pose a serious threat to stability in the region and a provocation.
China, the North’s closest ally, said Beijing “resolutely opposes” a North Korean nuclear test and hopes Pyongyang will return to disarmament talks.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the alert level of the military had been raised in response to the claimed nuclear test.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the reported North Korean test today, and the U.S. and Japan are likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
A resolution adopted in July after a series of North Korean missile launches imposed limited sanctions on North Korea and demanded that the reclusive communist nation suspend its ballistic-missile program – a demand the North rejected.
The resolution bans all U.N. member states from selling material or technology for missiles or weapons of mass destruction to North Korea – and it bans all countries from receiving missiles, banned weapons or technology from Pyongyang.
The North said last week it would conduct a test, sparking regional concern and frantic diplomatic efforts aimed at dissuading Pyongyang from such a move. North Korea has long claimed to have nuclear weapons but had never performed a known test to prove its arsenal.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully.
“It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the … people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability,” the KCNA statement said. “It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it.”
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (7:36 p.m. MDT Sunday) in Hwaderi near Kilju city on the northeast coast, citing defense officials.
North Korean scientists “successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions,” the KCNA report said, adding that this was “a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation.”
Sunday night, U.S. government officials with a wide range of agencies were looking into the report.
