North Korea fired two short ranged missles tuesday, a day after conducting a nuclear test. South Korea's news agency states that North Korea was aiming for a South Korean official. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Tuesday the international community would not be intimidated by North Korea's "provocative and destabilizing" missile tests. The U.N. Security Council -- which includes North Korea's closest ally, China -- on Monday unanimously condemned Pyongyang's nuclear test as a "clear violation" of international law.
North Korea agreed in 2008 to scrap its nuclear weapons program -- which it said had produced enough plutonium for about seven atomic bombs -- in exchange for economic aid. But the deal foundered over verification and disclosure issues, and the North expelled international inspectors and announced plans to restart its main nuclear reactor. Less than three weeks ago, the White House announced a new diplomatic effort to restart the stalled six-party nuclear talks. The discussions involve China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Monday's blast, conducted just before 10 a.m. (9 p.m. Sunday ET) showed up on seismographs with the punch of a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Russia estimated the force of Monday's blast at 10 to 20 kilotons, in the neighborhood of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs of World War II and far larger than the 2006 test.
North and South Korea technically remain at war, because no treaty formalized the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953. The conflict also involved China and the United States, and about 25,000 U.S. troops are still based in South Korea. But Johnson said renewed conflict is unlikely; rather, Pyongyang is "playing a political game"
