N. Korea Preparing For Another Nuke Test?

(CBS/AP)  No sooner had an analysis of air samples taken by an Air Force plane over the Sea of Japan confirmed that the North Koreans had indeed set off a nuclear device, than U.S. intelligence picked up signs of activity at an underground test site, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, raising the possibility that the North Koreans might test again.

"We're watching it, obviously, and discussing it with other parties, as well," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "I think it goes to say that it would further deepen the isolation of North Korea and I hope they would not take such a provocative act."

South Korea is aware of signs related to possible preparations for an additional North Korea nuclear test, Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed government officials. One official said various intelligence reports were coming in about a possible test, but that it was unclear how reliable they were.

Meanwhile, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office confirmed that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion. In a short statement posted on its Web site, Negroponte's office confirmed that the size of the explosion was less than 1 kiloton, a comparatively small nuclear explosion. Each kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

That's less than one-tenth the size of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports. That could indicate that North Korea was unable to produce a bigger yield from its weapon.

"Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006, detected radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P'unggye on October 9, 2006," the statement said.

On Friday, a senior Bush administration official told The Associated Press that one test conducted on samples gathered after the detonation found a radioactive gas consistent with a nuclear explosion. At the time, however, U.S. intelligence was not ready to confirm that a nuclear test actually had taken place.

The statement from Negroponte's office provides the first official confirmation from the United States that a nuclear detonation took place, as Pyongyang has claimed.

Meanwhile, North Korea appeared to slip further into isolation, as China — under intense pressure to enforce new U.N. sanctions — inspected cargo trucks bound for its communist ally and stepped up construction of a border fence.

Japan — once a major trading partner with the North Korea — said it was considering further sanctions, and Australia banned the North's ships from its ports.

The Chinese inspections at a border crossing with the North came amid concerns that Beijing would ignore the new U.N. sanctions leveled against the reclusive communist country for its proclaimed nuclear test. China is a major trader with North Korea and its support is key to the success of the new U.N. measures, which call for nations to check cargo leaving and arriving from North Korea.

"Chinese action on cargo inspection appears to have been prompted as much by a fear of reprisal after the U.N. vote as it is by the mandate of the resolution itself," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.

"Chinese diplomats have made clear that they don't expect to participate in inspection of ship cargo, either as part of the voluntary U.N. provision, or as part of the U.S.-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative," Falk reports, "but the inspection of land-based cargo has been occurring for some time as part of routine security and may increase."

China's customs agency and its commerce and foreign ministries refused to say whether the cargo checks were prompted by U.N. sanctions, but a top U.S. diplomat said the inspections were promising.

R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said there will be "enormous pressure on China to live up to their responsibility" in enforcing United Nations punishment of its ally, North Korea. "We are all banking on that."

But former State Department official Jack Pritchard says the sanctions so far are not enough to make the North Koreans regret testing, reports Martin.

"It's going to require some other measure of intervention to get the North Koreans to stop from what they're doing," Pritchard told Martin. Sanctions alone are certainly not going to work."

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[laurieleemoo]

by the way phil fin---i feel sorry for you ---you sound so doomed---so defeated--so pessimistic. Gawd ---you must be miserable. I guess it is all the matter of the way you look at things.

[laurieleemoo]

phil fin-- i will tell you who is childish--you and your liberal friends who DO NOTHING but call our President names. Do bad that is the only thing they do seem to be productive in---SPREADING THE HATE FOR OUR PRESIDENT. And frankly----if you call stating my opinion and displeasure---pushing people around---so be it---but i call it freedom of speech and telling people like it is---no political correctness bull involved here. I call it as i see it-------No matter who you are or who you think you are. And frankly if you and all your liberal friends CAN'T TAKE IT-----THEN DON'T DISH IT OUT. "DON'T CROSS THE RIVER, IF YOU CAN'T SWIM THE TIDE". By the way---your last comment----sounds CHILDISH to me!!!

[laurieleemoo]

once again phil n fin----SOUNDS LIKE *** TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[laurieleemoo]

oh alpha--about the spending---how can you just totally disregard 9/11 and see that we now live in a world where we WILL be spending more money for our National Security. We have had deficits before---but for not as good of a reason. You can not JUST DISREGARD THE REASON WE HAVE A DEFICIT.

[laurieleemoo]

it will kill two birds with one stone---stop the spread of nuclear weapons and get rid of the slave labor abuse in China----How can that be a bad thing?

[laurieleemoo]

alpha10---okay, lets look at this a different way if you would like---don't look at it as a boycott to the China Product---look at it as 'spreading the wealth' or how about this 'not putting all your eggs in one basket'! What good is the WTO if americans are brainswashed into believing we have NO CHOICE but to buy the chinese product. Look buying from other countries is good for everyone. In the end--it is better for us if these countries can start thriving on their own---and with a little spreading of the business---they just might. We should not be doing business with China anyway as they are one of the top HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS. Have you seen the Richard Gere documentary put out a few years back? Those child slave labors are locked in cells at night and then the guards come in and rape them----these are the children we are also taking advantage of due to CHEAP LABOR in CHINA. You can argue all the reasons in the world WHY we have to continue doing business in China------but rather why don't you spend your time better, BY DOING WHAT IS RIGHT--not buy China products and let the pieces fall where they may. It is not always easy doing what is right-----but in the end----you will find it works out for the best. Sometimes doing what is right does require initial sacrifice---but it will pay off in the end.

[bluestardad]

Bush and Rove's October Suprise is another War! Stay the Course, Vote Republican and pick up that soap.

[alphaa10-2009]

laurieleemon said, "Further, we can never bring about change if we do not even try---if we continue to listen to people brainwash us and tell us that we have no choice but to buy China's products... [we need] to have a message sent to the Chinese government LOUD AND CLEAR from the AMERICAN PEOPLE... its called BOYCOTT CHINA."
-------
Actually, a trade war does not rebuild US infrastructure wasted by NAFTA. And the PRC holds a title to the US money market, as well. Paul Volker is pessimistic about this situation and attributes the problem, not to the Chinese, but to intoxicating influence of lobby and campaign money on our congress, which refuses to rouse itself for anything but its own reelection campaigns.

Volker says the US is indeed in trouble because of its imbalance in payments, rendering us a debtor nation failing to produce even as much as it consumes. This attitude has become institutionalized, he says, by an administration which has no more concern for overspending than the Democrats it once condemned. Pointedly, Clinton left office with a budget surplus and Bush simply wasted it, compounding the deficit he created with reckless "tax cuts" for the upper five percent which did not jump start the economy. Under Bush, the US economy toys with a condition not seen since the days of staglation.

[peterbaldwin-2009]

Weeks prior to the US invasion of Iraq Bush asserted that he wasn't going to fall for Kim Jong's nuclear weapons claims(New York Times). Bush essentially said North Korea was bluffing, dispite the intelligence community making the opposite assessment at the time. Today with the scientific verification that the explosion was in fact nuclear, we have proof once again that Bush had it all wrong. Think about it. Bush said Saddam had nuclear (pronounced nucular) weapons and he didn't, and he said Kim Jong didn't have them and they did. Then he launched an unnecessary war and started calling himself a war president (landing on aircraft carriers dressed up as a pilot and donning Star Trek attire). Why isn't this guy in a mental institution yet?

[phil-in-fin]

To laurieleemoo:

"So the fact, that they hate us-----REALLY DOES NOT SAY MUCH!!!!!"

I can really see why the world is closer to obliteration than ever before.

No one cares what people think about Americans, so it is as if this gives America the right to push everybody else around because, well, they already hate us, so what difference does it make ...

That is except to "other" everybody and everything, to make it easier to hate, no one cares: you are either a liberal, a conservative, a Democrat, a Republican, evil, saintly, ally, axis, for the terrorists, against the terrorists, a this, a that ... the list is endless.

Such a childish attitude.

No one is allowed to be objective anymore.

You know nothing, except the few cubic inches inside you skull - and even that is questionable.