美国国家公共电台 NPR North Korea Conducts Its 5th Test Of Nuclear Weapon

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North Korea Conducts Its 5th Test Of Nuclear Weapon 

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UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in Korean).

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: 

You're listening to North Korean state TV this morning celebrating that country's test of a nuclear weapon. North Korea confirmed what is its fifth test after neighboring countries detected a suspicious 5.3 magnitude earthquake in North Korea overnight.

This is the second North Korean nuclear test just this year alone. NPR's Elise Hu is in Seoul and joins us to talk more about this. Good morning.

ELISE HU, BYLINE²: Good morning.

MONTAGNE: What more do we know about that test?

HU: Well, it happened on Founder's Day, marking the 68th anniversary of the founding of the current government. And this particular blast appears to be the most powerful one of the five that North Korea has conducted.

South Korea estimates the yield is at about 10 kilotons. This is an early estimate. That's about half the size of Hiroshima. But it would be North Korea's largest ever. And also, these tests are happening far more frequently. The last one, as you noted³, was just nine months ago.

Previously⁴, North Korea would wait two or three years between its nuclear tests. And, of course, we should note North Korea is the only country in the world that has conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century.

MONTAGNE: And this latest test, of course - immediately condemned⁵ throughout the world. And that includes North Korea's only real ally, China. So what is North Korea up to here?

HU: We can run down the responses real quick. South Korean President Park Geun-hye accused North Korean leader Kim Jong-un of, quote, "maniacal⁶ recklessness." China said it resolutely⁷ opposes the test and says it will lodge⁸ a diplomatic protest.

But Kim Jong-un really sees nuclear weapons as key to the legitimacy⁹ of the regime domestically. So he's not likely to change his policy. It's really baked in to North Korea's culture and system. In fact, the phrase, quote, "we are a full-fledged nuclear state" is even taught to elementary school students in North Korea as one of the key English phrases to know.

So the nuclear program, really, is playing to a domestic political audience, keeping the regime legitimate¹⁰ and playing up this idea to North Korean citizens that the North is constantly under threat by outside forces like South Korea and the United States.

MONTAGNE: And, of course, though the North is in violation¹¹ of U.N. Security Council resolutions, there are already pretty harsh economic sanctions. So what to do?

HU: Right. These sanctions so far haven't been successful in preventing the test. The North still has the resources to pursue nuclear weapons development. One ongoing¹² hole in the sanctions regime is that they're not fully¹³ enforced by China.

And because China is reluctant to cripple North Korea - because frankly¹⁴, the status quo, you could argue, is more desirable to China than a unified¹⁵ Korea under the leadership of Seoul, which is friendly to the United States.

MONTAGNE: One of the things that's said about North Korea is that the regime is belligerent¹⁶. Yes, but maybe even a little crazy - that it's, of course, an isolated¹⁷ power. But that regime is still around three generations later. And the North has been improving its nuclear capabilities¹⁸. In fact, one might argue that North Korea sort of knows what it's doing playing a long game.

HU: That's a really good point, Renee. The view in Asia, of course, is that they're not crazy at all but quite strategically successful. North Korea is really effective in operating in this space where there's distrust between the United States and China - sort of playing the U.S. and China against one another.

So China seems to have implicitly¹⁹ accepted that North Korea has become a nuclear power. The U.S. and South Korea - every time they try to put up defenses, it angers China. So instead of getting China on the side of the United States, China actually ends up siding with North Korea. So North Korea has been very effective with that sort of diplomatic game.

So from Pyongyang's perspective, they're quite successful - no reason to change that strategy. And we should note this is a real thorny²⁰ question. It's going to be one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for the next administration.

MONTAGNE: As President Obama himself said.

HU: That's right.

MONTAGNE: NPR's Elise Hu has been in Laos with the president and is now back at her home base in Seoul, South Korea. Thanks very much.

HU: You bet.