North Korea rocks Asia's status quo

The shock of an underground nuclear blast in North Korea's mountainous northeast late Sunday sent tremors of concern through Northeast Asia, uniting often disputatious powers against the prospect of a nuclear power rising within easy missile range.

The news of the test also dealt a blow to nearly a decade of efforts at reconciliation between North and South Korea – and presented a loss of face for China, seen as having pivotal influence in Pyongyang.

The North's display of nuclear prowess "will bring about some new perspectives on regional security," said Park Young Ho, senior fellow at the Korea Institute of National Unification. "Japan and even South Korea may have some temptation to develop nuclear weapons."

Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on a whirlwind get-acquainted tour of China and then Seoul, wrapped up with a plea for the world community to "address the situation with harsher measures."

Mr. Abe conveyed the sense that the test, announced by Pyongyang shortly after he arrived in Seoul, had helped significantly in resolving deep differences between Japan and South Korea as well as China. "We saw eye to eye," he said flatly after standing beside South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.

In Washington, President Bush said Monday that he had talked with China, South Korea, Russia, and Japan – members of the stalled six-party nuclear talks on North Korea – all of whom had reiterated their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

The UN Security Council Monday unanimously condemned the North's test and was to begin discussions on a US-drafted resolution. John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, said Washington wants to go beyond the resolution the Security Council adopted in July, making it tougher for North Korea to produce or export weapons of mass destruction. Members urged the North to refrain from further testing and to return to talks.

China issued a stern rebuke to North Korea in the wake of failed Chinese efforts to bring North Korea back to six-party talks or to head off missile tests by the North in early July. It also expressed anger at the fact that the nuclear test occurred the day after Abe's visit to Beijing.

Beijing's strong response may signal a willingness to accede to calls in the UN Security Council for tougher action on North Korea's nuclear program, including economic sanctions that China and South Korea had earlier opposed.

China's Foreign Ministry charged that North Korea had "ignored universal opposition of the international community and flagrantly conducted the nuclear test" – a reaction that contrasted with its relatively mild response to North Korea's conventional missile tests in July.

China and South Korea had both earlier criticized Japan for exaggerating the North Korean nuclear threat, accusing Japanese rightists of building up North Korea as a dangerous enemy in order to provide the rationale for doing away with Article Nine of Japan's postwar constitution, which forbids Japan from sending troops overseas.

At that time, China raised concern about Japan emerging as an expansionist power, jeopardizing regional security. North Korea's nuclear test rekindled fears of a regional nuclear-arms race, but there was no trace in statements from Beijing or Seoul after the announcement of the test of the kind of anti-Japanese sentiment that has reverberated in recent years.

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