by Damozel | The Guardian reports:
North Korea
today risked further international isolation after it claimed to have
successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb
that destroyed Hiroshima.
The test comes less than two months after the North enraged the US and its allies by test firing a long-range ballistic missile...Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent
with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country's
Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test-fired three
short-range missiles from a base on the east coast immediately after
the nuclear test..
The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time (0154 BST),
created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the
country's north-east, reports said.
Meanwhile, certain members of the right are outraged that Obama did no more than point out that this is a matter of grave concern to the entire international community. Sadly, Obama's foreign policy people have been pretty busy elsewhere, with other priorities. (cf. The New York Times) The question is whether there is anything he can do about North Korea, besides work on Russia and China to exert pressure. They ain't happy about the test either.
Of course, Bush's strategy for North Korea was, shall we say, inconsistent and ultimately -- as evidenced by this test -- a failure