NORTH KOREA - Third Nuclear Test

"North Korea Confirms It Conducted 3rd Nuclear Test" by DAVID E. SANGER and CHOE SANG-HUN, New York Times 2/11/2013

Excerpt

North Korea confirmed on Tuesday that it had conducted its third, long-threatened nuclear test, according to the official KCNA news service, posing a new challenge for the Obama administration in its effort to keep the country from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.

The KCNA said it used a “miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously” and that the test “did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment.”

Many nations initially detected the test as seismic activity centered near the same location where the North conducted tests in 2006 and 2009.  The United States Geological Survey said it was only a kilometer underground, an indication consistent with a nuclear blast.  And in Vienna, the organization that monitors the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty said that tremor had “clear explosion-like characteristics.”

Preliminary estimates suggested a test far larger than the previous two conducted by the North, though probably less powerful than the first bomb the United States dropped on Japan, in Hiroshima, in 1945.

The test is the first under the country’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, and an open act of defiance to the Chinese, who urged the young leader not to risk open confrontation by setting off the weapon.  In the past few days a Chinese newspaper that is often reflective of the government’s thinking said the North would “pay a heavy price” if it proceeded with the test.  But it was unclear how China would act at the United Nations Security Council, which scheduled an emergency session for Tuesday morning as news of the blast played out.

The United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, condemned the test in a statement Tuesday.

The Obama administration has already threatened to take additional action to penalize the North through the United Nations in the event of a test.  But the fact is that there are few sanctions left to apply against the most unpredictable country in Asia.  The only penalty that would truly hurt the North would be a cutoff of oil and other aid from China.  And until now, despite issuing warnings, the Chinese have feared instability and chaos in the North more than its growing nuclear and missile capability, and the Chinese leadership has refused to participate in sanctions.