North Korea goes nuclear

Defying worldwide appeals and threats of sanctions, North Korea appears to have made good on a promise to conduct its first nuclear bomb test.

A South Korean government official first reported a test had been detected, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun later convened a meeting of top security officials, the news agency said.

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official confirmed for Fox News Channel just before midnight that the test had been detected by the U.S.

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The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 4.2 tremor in North Korea coinciding with the time of the test.

North Korea gleefully announced its test was successful.

"The nuclear test is a historic event that brought happiness to our military and people," the official news agency KCNA said.

The agency said the underground test was performed successfully "with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent," and that no radioactive material leaked from the test site.

"The test is 100 percent safe," said the KCNA.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (9:36 p.m. EDT Sunday) in Hwaderi near Kilju city, citing defense officials.

China reportedly received a 20-minute warning that the test would take place.

North Korea had threatened to conduct its first nuclear test as early as the weekend. But Japan and China issued warnings to President Kim Jong-il not to go ahead with that plan.

"We saw eye to eye on the North Korean nuclear test, which is that it can't be tolerated,'' Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a press conference late yesterday after meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao. North Korea must return "unconditionally'' to six-party talks aimed at dismantling the nation's nuclear weapons program, Abe said.

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Abe was on his way to South Korea to meet with officials there for a face-to-face discussion about the crisis in North Korea.

China is Japan's second-biggest trading partner, and Japanese exports there rose 26 percent to 4.96 trillion yen ($42 billion) in the first six months of the year from the same period in 2005, according to Japanese finance ministry figures.

Japan feels particularly threatened by Kim's nuclear ambitions as missile tests by North Korea have been conducted in and around the Sea of Japan. Japan, of course, is also the only nation in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack.

Many expected North Korea to wait three months to test its bomb in an effort to get the U.S. to lift financial sanctions imposed last year. North Korea's bomb has an estimated yield of 20 kilotons, making it capable of killing as many as 200,000 people and destroying everything in a five-mile radius.

The yen skidded to its weakest in seven months and Asian stocks were rattled today after the test.

Worries about North Korea have cast a shadow over otherwise strong Asian markets in the past several days as investors have braced for an escalation of tensions.

After opening higher, South Korea's benchmark stock index, KOSPI <.ks11>, reversed direction on the reports, falling as much as 3.6 percent to levels last seen in Aug. 14.

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