[imText1]North Korea finally conducted a nuclear test.
The internal Korean Central News Agency and the external Pyongyang News Agency officially broadcasted the North Korea’s first underground nuclear test ‘successfully’ on Monday.
The nuclear test has turned the tide of Northeast Asia into total danger.
The U.N. Security Council will most likely adopt a resolution of sanction, based on the U.N. Charter article 7.
The U.N. Charter article 7 allows the international organization to carry out not only economic sanctions but also military attacks. Naval blockades, embargos on arms exportation, and even establishment of a no-flying zone according to the article. As the U.N. conducted intensive blockades against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1991, a similar type of sanction could follow North Korea’s nuclear test.
It is now important for South Korea to deal with the North Korean nuclear development. The test today has been predicted. The South Korean government must announce warning and its will to punish Pyongyang’s misdeed.
Also, South Korea must join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and participate in the sanction against the North, while providing any intelligence regarding North Korean nuclear weapons and Kim Jong Il regime.
And it is necessary to reaffirm the American nuclear umbrella to relieve the South Korean mass’s fear, and to cooperate with the U.S. and Japan to equalize the balance of nuclear power on the Korean Peninsula,
First of all, the President must declare that ‘North Korea is wholly responsible for any aggravation following the situation and every inter-Korean economic cooperation and negotiation will be officially stopped.’
The international society is most worried about a possible leak of nuclear material or technology to other countries from North Korea.
“If North Korea does conduct a nuclear test,” said Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, “and spreads nuclear technology, we are gonna live in a different world.” And Rumsfeld continued on that North Korea has been ‘known as a distributor of WMD’ and ‘publicly stating its intention of selling nuclear technology.’
Tom Casey, deputy spokesman of the U.S. State Department, said that, ‘Washington is open to every diplomatic option.”
Inside South Korea, the voice against the Sunshine Policy is getting louder. The Roh administration would have to change its inter-Korean policy.
In China, Beijing is likely to join the sanction against the Pyongyang regime. Wang Guangya, Chinese Ambassador to the UN, argued that there would be no protection for countries with ‘bad behavior.’
Inside North Korea, the test is expected to boost the morale of the population. The hardliners in Kim Jong Il’s army would hold the initiative.
As of now, for Kim Jong Il, there is no solution except for escalating the crisis in Northeast Asia with nuclear warheads. Nevertheless, the international society, especially the participants of the six-party talks, would never acknowledge North Korea as an official nuclear state.
In conclusion, Kim Jong Il regime is rushing to its end.
