The news is all over the Internet.
BBC News : North Korea claims nuclear test
What will be the consequences of such careless acts ? We already know that the US will destroy North Korea (not invade it, actually destroy it, level it to the ground) if they attack South Korea or Japan. South Korea has been ready for war ever since the split between the 2 countries, although relations had improved over the past years. Japan has just appointed a new Prime Minister that hates North Korea.
Abe's nomination may have been what incited Pyong Yang to carry on with the test, as a defiance to Japan, as they know that Japan is not allowed to attack them due to its pacifist constitution (which Abe intends to reform). So that may have been intended as a provocation to Abe's government, first to protest against their anti-Kim Jong Il stance, then to demonstrate the inability of Japan to take any serious measures agaisnt North Korea.
Nevertheless the North Koreans are playing with fire. Iran is already in the spotlight for wanting to create an a-bomb, let alone test it. Iran faces international sanctions and causes much concern in Europe and the Middle East. Naturally North Korea is smaller and weaker than Iran, but it does have nukes, which Iran doesn't.
North Korea has also much better reasons to attack Japan, if not South Korea, than Iran has to attack any of its neighbours. It is no secret than both the North and South Koreans, as well as the Chinese and many South-East Asians, resent Japan for the crimes it committed during WWII. With an anti-North Korean PM, Japan may indeed be a favoured target of North Korea, and that wouldn't be the first time (we remember a few taepodong missiles that landed near on in Japan not too long ago, although without causing any casuality).
Shy is Washington waiting to take military actions against a nuke-enabled country of Bush's infamous "axis of evil", when it has made clear that it would invade Iran if the same thing happened there ? I suppose that the answer is fairly obvious. Once the US decide to attack North Korea, this latter will have nothing to lose and will necessarily counter-attack on the nearest most hated target, that is to say Japan, with the US bases in Okinawa, as well as Tokyo, making the two most obvious targets.
It is all a question of 'when', or whether Kim Jong Il will have the balls to come out of his cocoon, in a self-styled "heroic" (and suicidal) one-time attack.
BBC News : North Korea claims nuclear test
What will be the consequences of such careless acts ? We already know that the US will destroy North Korea (not invade it, actually destroy it, level it to the ground) if they attack South Korea or Japan. South Korea has been ready for war ever since the split between the 2 countries, although relations had improved over the past years. Japan has just appointed a new Prime Minister that hates North Korea.
Abe's nomination may have been what incited Pyong Yang to carry on with the test, as a defiance to Japan, as they know that Japan is not allowed to attack them due to its pacifist constitution (which Abe intends to reform). So that may have been intended as a provocation to Abe's government, first to protest against their anti-Kim Jong Il stance, then to demonstrate the inability of Japan to take any serious measures agaisnt North Korea.
Nevertheless the North Koreans are playing with fire. Iran is already in the spotlight for wanting to create an a-bomb, let alone test it. Iran faces international sanctions and causes much concern in Europe and the Middle East. Naturally North Korea is smaller and weaker than Iran, but it does have nukes, which Iran doesn't.
North Korea has also much better reasons to attack Japan, if not South Korea, than Iran has to attack any of its neighbours. It is no secret than both the North and South Koreans, as well as the Chinese and many South-East Asians, resent Japan for the crimes it committed during WWII. With an anti-North Korean PM, Japan may indeed be a favoured target of North Korea, and that wouldn't be the first time (we remember a few taepodong missiles that landed near on in Japan not too long ago, although without causing any casuality).
Shy is Washington waiting to take military actions against a nuke-enabled country of Bush's infamous "axis of evil", when it has made clear that it would invade Iran if the same thing happened there ? I suppose that the answer is fairly obvious. Once the US decide to attack North Korea, this latter will have nothing to lose and will necessarily counter-attack on the nearest most hated target, that is to say Japan, with the US bases in Okinawa, as well as Tokyo, making the two most obvious targets.
It is all a question of 'when', or whether Kim Jong Il will have the balls to come out of his cocoon, in a self-styled "heroic" (and suicidal) one-time attack.
