it carried out an underground nuclear explosion Monday, October 9. The claim of what is known as the world’s most repressive Communist nation, was condemned in Asia and around the world.
In a published statement the United States said North Korea has engaged in "a provocative act in defiance of the international community."
South Korea, whose forces exchanged gunfire with North Korean troops across the Demilitarized Zone Saturday, October 7, raised its military alert level soon after the nuclear-test announcement.
FEW DETAILS
The North Korean news agency gave few specific details, apart from saying the nuclear test explosion was successful, and that there was no radioactive leak in the area.
South Korean, Japanese and American scientists detected seismic waves emanating from North Korea’s test site, about 385 kilometres northeast of Pyongyang, at the time North Korea said the nuclear device was detonated, 0136 UTC, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.
The supposed location of the blast is in north-eastern North Korea, close to Chinese territory. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test was "unpardonable". South Korea said it would "sternly respond". President Roh Moo-hyun also called an emergency meeting of South Korea’s National Security Council and put the armed forces on a heightened state of alert.
AID SHIPMENT
Seoul suspended a scheduled aid shipment to North Korea, the state news agency reported.
The developments have underscored concerns that embattled North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wants to pressure the United States and its allies to ease sanctions to back up his regime despite international concern over his country’s human rights record, BosNewsLife observed earlier.
Some observers say there are at least 200,000 people imprisoned in North Korea’s notorious prison camps, in many cases for their faith in Christ or opposition to the Communist government.
North Korea’s Stalinist system of carrying out Communism is based on "total devotion of the individual to an ideology promoted by the late leader Kim Il Sung and his successor and son, Kim Jong Il, observers who recently visited the isolated nation said. (With BosNewsLife Monitoring).
