North Korea's nuclear test

Obama vows swift action over nuclear tests but North Korea remains defiant

President likely to address 'highly provocative' actions in state of the union speech following emergency UN meeting

the Guardian,

12 February, 2013

Barack Obama has vowed to take "swift and credible action" over North Korea's "highly provocative" nuclear test which appeared to bring Pyongyang closer to producing a viable weapon.

The United Nations security council held an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday morning to "strongly condemn" Pyongyang's most powerful underground blast to date as a "clear threat to international peace and security".

The council called the test a "grave violation" of earlier resolutions and warned that it will strengthen sanctions just three weeks after the latest wave took effect.

But North Korea remained defiant, describing the test as a "preliminary measure" and threatening "stronger" actions unless the US ends its "hostility".

Experts said the explosion appeared to be an important step toward developing a nuclear bomb capable of fitting to a long range missile.

South Korea raised the level of its military alert.

Pyongyang's defiance was expected to force its way in to Obama's state of the union speech on Tuesday because the president was planning to make a call for a cut to nuclear weapons stockpiles worldwide. But while Obama's frustration was evident from the strength of his denunciation, it is less clear what the US can do about North Korea's actions.

"This is a highly provocative act that, following its December 12 ballistic missile launch, undermines regional stability," said Obama. "North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to US national security and to international peace."

North Korea described the latest nuclear test as a "first response" aimed at defending itself from the "US threats".

"This nuclear test was our preliminary measure, for which we exercised our most restraint," an unidentified North Korean spokesman told the state news agency. "If the United States continues to come out with hostility and complicates the situation, we will be forced to take stronger, second and third responses in consecutive steps."

The ministry did not say what those steps might be.

Obama said the nuclear test offered only an illusion of greater security.

"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure. Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery," he said.

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies."

The test was condemned by other countries including China, which is best placed to pressure the North Korean government with measures such as cutting oil supplies but has so far backed only limited sanctions.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called Pyongyang's actions "deplorable" in ignoring international opinion. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, described the nuclear test as a "clear and grave violation of the relevant UN security council resolutions" and said that North Korea faced further isolation.

The North Korean test may have been timed to coincide with Obama's state of the union speech in which he planned to call for a sharp drawdown in the number of nuclear warheads, proposing to drop the US arsenal from about 1,700 to 1,000.

It was to be one element in a speech expected to define Obama's second term agenda and announce a number of initiatives, including plans to more than halve the 66,000 troops the US has in Afghanistan by this time next year as the Pentagon prepares for the final pullout of combat forces by the end of 2014.

The president is expected to strongly press comprehensive immigration reform and to renew his call for an assault weapons ban in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The White House, along with congressional Democrats, has invited dozens of victims of gun crime or their relatives to attend the speech. Among Michelle Obama's guests will be the parents of Hadiya Pendleton, 15, who participated in the president's inaugural parade last month and was then killed in a shooting in Chicago.

Among others attending the speech will be former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was badly wounded in a shooting in Tucson two years ago.

To counter the move by supporters of more gun control, a Texas congressman, Steve Stockman, has invited rock star Ted Nugent to attend. Nugent is an ardent supporter of the National Rifle Association, and last year said he would either be "dead or in jail" if Obama were re-elected.

Obama is also expected to tick boxes on the need to combat climate change and in favour of clean energy, although there appears little chance of the president getting major environmental legislation through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

But the White House has indicated that the core of the president's speech will focus on strategies to strengthen the American middle class as a means of bolstering a slowly improving economy. Obama told Democratic party members of the House on Thursday that job creation remains at the heart of that.

Iran urges to destroy all atomic weapons after N.Korea nuclear test

A handout picture released by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's official website shows him (R) listening to an expert during a tour of Tehran's research reactor center on February 15, 2012 (AFP Photo/PRESIDENT.IR)

RT,

12 February, 2013

Iran has confirmed that its higher-grade enriched uranium is being converted into reactor fuel, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced. He also called for destruction of all nuclear arms following N. Korea's third nuclear test.

"We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons and at the same time all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast told state news agency IRNA. 

However, countries should have the right to "make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes," he added.

Speaking in Moscow, Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi also said that North Korea as a sovereign state had its right to carry out a nuclear test.

"North Korea, as far as I know, is not signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, so it can afford acting according to its own interests," Salehi told journalists.

Pyongyang withdrew from the NPT in 2003 to protest accusations of launching an enriched uranium weapons program. Salehi added that Iran is not considering quitting the treaty.

'Iran converting 20 percent enriched uranium into reactor fuel'

Referring to recent media reports that Iran had already converted some of its 20-percent-enriched uranium into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, Mehmanparast said that “this work is being done and all its reports have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in a complete manner.”

The spokesperson added that Iran is ready to allow nuclear inspectors to visit their Parchin military site, providing world powers recognize Tehran's right to enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, believes Iran might be using Parchin to develop nuclear weapons.

The press conference comes after an AP report on Monday alleging that Iran had begun to convert some of its existing nuclear material, which could potentially be used in weapons, into another form. The material is in amounts large enough to feed concerns about its atomic program, according to anonymous sources quoted by AP.

Shortly after the report emerged, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed once again that Tehran is drawing close to a “red line,” telling visiting American Jewish leaders that Iran must be stopped. He also urged stronger pressure and further sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Last September, Netanyahu called on the UN General Assembly to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The West has repeatedly insisted that Iran is developing atomic weapons and imposed several rounds of sanctions against Tehran targeting its oil and banking sectors. Experts fear that Iran could have enough 20-percent uranium for a bomb by the summer, if enrichment continues. The 20-percent material is technically only a step away from weapons-grade uranium.

However, the substance can also be used for peaceful purposes and Iran insists that their nuclear program is designed to meet the country's growing energy and medical needs. Converting enriched uranium into fuel is also one of the ways for Tehran to slow the growth in its stockpile of material that could be used to make a bomb.

Iran is expecting a new offer from world powers in international nuclear talks which are deemed to take place in late February in Kazakhstan, a member of its negotiating team said on Monday. Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany) are to resume negotiations after an eight-month break, following up three failed meetings previous year.

Their last meeting in Moscow yielded no breakthrough as Iran rejected calls from the group to suspend part of its program and asked for a substantial sanctions relief in return.

On February 26,  P-5+1 group will meet with Iran as part of routine summit in Kazakhstan. The talks are expected to focus on Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Moscow intends to bring up the issue of Tehran’s reluctance to comply with UNSC demands and freeze its uranium enrichment.