North Korea carries out “successful” nuclear test

North Korea said it carried out a second and more powerful nuclear test on Monday, defying international pressure to rein in its nuclear programs after years of six-nation disarmament talks.

The hard-line communist state, which stunned the world by testing an atomic bomb for the first time in October 2006, had threatened another test after the U.N. Security Council censured it following a long-range rocket launch in April.

"(North Korea) successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

It added that the underground test "was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control".

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.7-magnitude quake in an area close to where the test site is thought to be.

Ratcheting up tensions further, North Korea fired a short-range missile just hours later, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing a diplomatic source. The missile was fired from North Korea's east coast missile site at Musudan-ri.

(North Korea) successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way

KCNA news agency

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The U.N. Security Council was too meet later on Monday to discuss the nuclear test, Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.

The United States began consultations with its allies in a bid to establish facts about North Korea's claim that it had conducted a new nuclear test, a State Department official said late Sunday.

President Barack Obama said the tests were a "matter of grave concern to all nations" and warranted action by the international community.

"North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community. North Korea's behavior increases tensions and undermines stability in Northeast Asia," Obama said in a statement.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak convened an emergency National Security Council meeting and both South Korea and Japan announced the formation of government crisis teams.

Japan said it would seek an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which imposed sanctions on the North for its first test.

"It is absolutely unacceptable. Japan will take stern action against North Korea," said Takeo Kawamura, the chief cabinet secretary.

North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community. North Korea's behavior increases tensions and undermines stability in Northeast Asia

U.S. President Barack Obama

Six-way talks

China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have been negotiating since 2003 to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for energy and security guarantees.

The negotiations led to an agreement signed in 2007, under which the North said it would dismantle its nuclear facilities. The deal bogged down last December over ways to verify the North's declared nuclear activities.

In April the North irked the international community with a long-range rocket launch, a move that many nations said was actually a ballistic missile test.

After the Security Council condemned the launch and tightened sanctions, the communist state vowed to conduct a second nuclear test as well as ballistic missile tests unless the world body apologized.

It also announced that it was quitting the six-way talks, which are hosted by its closest ally China, and would restart its plutonium-making program.

It is absolutely unacceptable. Japan will take stern action against North Korea

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura

Internal political transition

Some analysts have said the test may be aimed at boosting the position at home of leader Kim Jong-il, who is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last year.

Several say Kim, who succeeded his father to create the world's first communist dynasty, may be trying to secure the succession for one of his three sons and that a nuclear test in defiance of world opinion could help him win support from his hard-line military to do so.

"One has to wonder if this is part of the internal political transition that may be occurring inside North Korea," said Jim Walsh, an expert in international security and a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,