WaPo - "The Korean Central News Agency released the following report on Monday in connection with one more successful underground nuclear test in the DPRK.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way as requested by its scientists and technicians.
ad_icon

"The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology.

"The successful nuclear test is greatly inspiring the army and people of the DPRK all out in the 150-day campaign, intensifying the drive for effecting a new revolutionary surge to open the gate to a thriving nation.

"The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the region around it with the might of (the military first policy) Songun."

New York Times, By Alan Cowell, May 25

PARIS — Across the globe from Washington to Moscow to Beijing, North Korea’s underground nuclear test met with strong opposition Monday and some governments threatened to punish the secretive regime in Pyongyang with deeper isolation and possible tighter sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.

Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan said his government will seek a new United Nations resolution to condemn the test. He said an urgent meeting of the Security Council was expected to be held on Monday in New York at Japan’s request.

China, a key player whose response was closely watched around the world, said it was “resolutely opposed” to the test, according to a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency, Reuters reported.

Russia said the test breached a United Nations Security Council resolution and would “endanger security and stability in the region,” according to the Russian foreign ministry in a statement.

1.2 to 1.5 kilotons says Arms Control Wonk just now.

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2309/nork-test-still-small

North Korea fires two more missiles after nuclear test• UN security council discusses stronger sanctions

Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Tania Branigan in Beijing and Ed Pilkington in New York

A defiant North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast today, according to news reports, hours after the UN security council condemned the apparently successful test of a nuclear weapon as powerful as the one that destroyed Hiroshima.

The 15-member UN security council will begin behind-the-scenes negotiations today designed to strengthen sanctions against Pyongyang, after an emergency meeting last night. Diplomats scrambled to forge a united front against a test seen as a provocative step towards North Korea gaining a full nuclear arsenal.

Tensions on the peninsula rose as Pyongyang accused the US of "hostile intent" today and the South Korean news agency Yonhap said the North had fired two missiles, citing an unnamed government source.

Seoul announced it would immediately join a US-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, component parts or missiles to deliver them. Pyongyang has warned it would consider membership a declaration of war.

Barack Obama spoke at the White House last night, denouncing North Korea's action as "a blatant violation of international law". He said North Korea "will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons".

Japan, which considers itself high on Pyongyang's potential hit list, said it would seek a fresh UN resolution condemning the test.

Gordon Brown described the test as "erroneous, misguided and a danger to the world".

The UN security council talks in New York produced no fresh initiative last night beyond a statement condemning the test. But there were signs that several members were prepared to press for tightened sanctions when the hard work begins today seeking a resolution that would be acceptable to all parties.

more

Analysis: shock waves felt in US, but Kim's real target may be closer to home
Sending message to Obama may be the best way for leader to protect dynasty

Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 May 2009 01.40 BST Article history

For senior staffers on the east Asia desk of the US national security council, gathered in the inner sanctums of Barack Obama's White House, the news, when it came, could hardly have been worse. North Korea was about to detonate another, bigger nuclear device in defiance of American-led worldwide opposition. And there was nothing the US could do about it.

It is not clear when the White House learned of the impending test, although a South Korean presidential aide was quoted yesterday as saying the North had informed the US in advance. What is clear is that the grand panjandrums of Pyongyang, the secretive leaders who dwell in the hermit kingdom's mysterious palaces of smoke and mirrors, have confounded their adversaries once again.

In strategic terms, the implications of their atomic demarche are substantial. By demonstrating that it has, beyond any lingering doubt, joined the nuclear "club", North Korea has directly challenged the international authority not only of the US but also of its regionally more influential neighbours, China and Russia. By also firing off three short-range missiles, following April's alleged ballistic missile test, the North has seriously compromised the security of Japan and South Korea.

In political terms, Pyongyang's second bomb exploded directly under the United Nations, given that the security council's resolution 1718 explicitly forbade such a repeat action after the first test in 2006. The debris from the blast includes the half-hearted sanctions, and the carrots of aid and fuel which the international community has brandished alternately in vain efforts to change the North's behaviour.

In immediate terms, the detonation appears to have destroyed what remained of the six-party talks – the process whereby the US, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China had sought jointly to induce Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme. It has heightened proliferation concerns, given the North's alleged record of nuclear trade with Syria and Iran. And in passing, the test heaped symbolic scorn on Obama's aspirations towards a nuclear-free world.

Yesterday's events revived long-­standing differences of opinion over what is driving North Korea's behaviour, and how best to respond. Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, suggested North Korea's eccentric "dear leader", Kim Jong-il, was trying primarily to secure his family dynasty against its enemies. "They are trying to achieve security and leadership – taking steps to enhance national security and the likelihood of regime survival."

The test was worthy of condemnation, Pinkston said, but added: "The international community must keep the door open on diplomacy and should not abandon it, though the situation is bleak."

Glyn Ford, author of North Korea on the Brink, described the test as "a message to Obama". Like other commentators, he said Kim was demanding Washington's attention, and hoping for concessions.

But Aidan Foster-Carter, a leading British academic, said the most likely reason for the regime's behaviour was an intensifying fight over the succession from the ailing, elderly Kim. "North Korea is snarling more. That suggests an internal power struggle," Foster-Carter told the Chatham House thinktank in London last week.

"The dog barks loudest when it's feeling vulnerable. And maybe it's safer to be a hardliner than a softliner when there's a power struggle going on."

more

Analysts Worry Threatening N. Korea with Sanctions Could Create Escalation
By Andre de Nesnera
Washington
26 May 2009

snip..

Analysts also question the future of the six-party talks - a negotiating process that began in August 2003 bringing together representatives from the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

Pyongyang withdrew from the talks following international condemnation of its April 5 test launch of a long-range ballistic missile.

David Kay, former chief nuclear weapons inspector with the (Vienna-based) International Atomic Energy Agency, believes the talks - as he put it - are dead.

"Not only are they dead because the North Koreans have expressed no interest in returning to them - I think it is recognized in Washington at least and I think around the world that it would be foolish to reward the North Koreans' sending off a nuclear device by rushing back to talks," Kay said.

However David Albright says placing more sanctions on Pyongyang and, as he put it, continuing to demonize North Korea is not the way forward. He says the new U.S. administration must send a high-level mission to that country.

Envoys to the Six-Party Talks on N. Korea's nuclear issue shake hands before a new round of talks in Beijing, (2008 file photo)
Envoys to the Six-Party Talks on N. Korea's nuclear issue shake hands before a new round of talks in Beijing, (2008 file photo)
"Not to offer incentives. Not to offer threats either. But to go there and try to have a meeting with Kim Jong-il and say look, what's going on? Do you want this confrontation to escalate?" He asked. "And in a sense hold out an open hand: nothing in it, not gifts, not threats. But find out what's going on. Because history tells us that North Korea is happy to escalate in these kinds of conflicts and so who knows how that is going to end," he noted.

Albright says threatening North Korea with sanctions and isolation is guaranteed to create escalation and not capitulation.

North Korea 'will pay' over tests
bbc

North Korea will "pay a price" for the nuclear and missile tests it has carried out in recent days, the US administration has warned.

US officials are working to build a unified response to what is being seen as North Korean defiance over its nuclear programme.

The moves come a day after the UN unanimously condemned North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test.

Reports from South Korea say the North fired a third missile late on Tuesday.

The Yonhap news agency said the short-range missile was fired off North Korea's east coast, citing an unnamed South Korean government source.

The latest test comes after Pyongyang fired two short-range missiles earlier on Tuesday.

more

SEOUL, May 27 (Reuters) - North Korea has restarted its plant that extracts bomb-grade plutonium, making good on a threat it delivered a month ago to resume operations at the ageing facility, a South Korean newspaper said on Wednesday.

North Korea said in April it had restarted the plutonium separation complex at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which was being taken apart under a six-way disarmament-for-aid deal. There had been no signs yet that work had resumed there.

"There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation that have been detected by U.S. surveillance satellites, and these include steam coming out of the facility," the country's largest newspaper Chosun Ilbo quoted an unnamed government source as saying.