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Meanwhile, in North Korea....

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« on: September 09, 2016, 06:42:23 pm »


from The Washington Post....

North Korea conducts fifth nuclear test
as regime celebrates national holiday


By ANNA FIFIELD | 12:24AM EDT - Friday, September 09, 2016

Japan Meteorological Agency official Gen Aoki speaks to reporters as screens display shock waves recorded earlier in the day during a news conference in Tokyo. — Photograph: Franck Robichon/European Pressphoto Agency.
Japan Meteorological Agency official Gen Aoki speaks to reporters as screens display shock waves recorded earlier in the day
during a news conference in Tokyo. — Photograph: Franck Robichon/European Pressphoto Agency.


TOKYO — North Korea conducted its fifth atomic test Friday morning, South Korean officials said, as Kim Jong Un's regime continues to defy international pressure aimed at making it abandon its nuclear and missile programs.

The test, which analysts said appeared to be of a large nuclear device, came at exactly 9 a.m. local time on Friday, the 68th anniversary of the formation of the communist regime by Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather, and a national holiday.

It underscores North Korea's continued defiance but also the ineffectiveness of even the most recent waves of tough sanctions imposed after the nuclear test in January, analysts said.

“The whole expectation eight or nine months ago was that sanctions were finally going to bring North Korea to heel, but clearly that is not the case,” said David Kang, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. “Clearly they respond to pressure with pressure of their own.”

Still, the international community would look for ways to inflict more pain on North Korea to punish the regime for its continued defiance, said Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president.

“North Korea's nuclear test is a grave threat to the international community and we strongly condemn it,” Park said Friday from Laos, where she had been attending the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN meeting. She cut short her trip to return immediately to South Korea.

“We will use all possible measures to increase pressure on the North,” she said, according to the Yonhap news agency. “North Korea's desperate dependence on nuclear development is testimony to Kim Jong Un's fanaticism and recklessness. North Korea's provocations will do nothing but accelerate its self-destruction.”

After the U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.3-magnitude earthquake near Punggye-ri, the location of North Korea's previous nuclear tests, on Friday morning, South Korea’s defense ministry said it believed the Kim regime had ordered another nuclear test.

Analysts said the earthquake was artificial. “USGS is calling it an explosion because it has all the hallmarks: The waveform is sudden, unlike an earthquake, the depth is shallow, the location is the North Korean test site, and it happened on the half-hour,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

“This is clearly a nuclear test,” Lewis said, estimating the size at between 10 and 20 kilotons, a size that, if confirmed, would make this the biggest of North Korea's five tests.

The governments in both South Korea and Japan convened emergency meetings to discuss the test.

In Washington, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement: “We are aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula in the vicinity of a known North Korean nuclear test site. We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners.”

Scientists are now working to determine what kind of test it was, with Japan immediately sending two “sniffer” planes into the air. “Let's see if any gases escape the test tunnel that would give away the nature of the device,” said Joshua Pollack, editor of the Nonproliferation Review. This test seemed to have both a domestic and an international purpose, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

“Domestically, KJU wants to present himself as a strong leader standing strong against the U.S.” he said, suggesting this could be because Kim, at 32, is so young but also perhaps because recent high-level defections have raised speculation of cracks in the regime.

“Internationally, this test is designed to show that sanctions imposed against North Korea and international pressure are not working. They're urging the world to accept its failure and revise its North Korea policy,” Yang said.

Indeed, this latest test will cause consternation and hand-wringing in international capitals.

The U.N. Security Council imposed tough new sanctions in March to punish North Korea for its January nuclear test — which the regime claimed was of a hydrogen bomb — and a long-range ballistic missile test in February.

It ordered a ban on mineral exports from North Korea, a major source of income for the regime, and strict inspections of all cargo going in and out of the country. The United States followed with new financial sanctions and by designating Kim Jong Un by name for human rights abuses. South Korea has also taken a strident approach, closing an inter-Korean industrial park that had been a major source of revenue for the regime.

Still, Kim has become increasingly defiant, testing a range of missiles this year and apparently making some technological progress, including on a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

In its most recent salvo, North Korea launched three medium-range missiles on Monday as China, which had joined the international condemnation of last month's submarine-launched ballistic missile, was hosting the Group of 20 meeting. The rockets flew 620 miles, falling inside Japan's air defense identification zone.

A day after those launches, the Security Council issued its latest condemnation of the Kim regime’s activities.

“The members of the Security Council deplore all the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s ballistic missile activities, including these launches, noting that such activities contribute to [its] development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension,” the council said in statement on Tuesday, using North Korea's official name.

Analysts expect another round of discussions on ways to put pressure on North Korea, despite the fact that the latest efforts have not had an impact.

“There's now obvious progress in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. They seem to be making precisely the technical progress that people don't want,” said Euan Graham, a security expert at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who once served as a British diplomat in Pyongyang. “North Korea is obviously prepared to take the economic pain and is able to conintue to materially supply the two programs. We're in a race to the bottom.”


Yoonjung Seo in Seoul and Ellen Nakashima and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • North Korea fires 3 missiles as G-20 continues in China

 • North Korea hails ‘greatest success’ of submarine-launched ballistic missile

 • North Korean missile lands perilously close to Japan


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-conducts-fifth-nuclear-test-as-regime-celebrates-national-holiday/2016/09/08/9332c01d-6921-4fe3-8f68-c611dc59f5a9_story.html
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