Kaboom:
"There is a high possibility that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test," said Chi Heoncheol, an earthquake specialist at the government-funded Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. Chi said a magnitude 3.9 magnitude earthquake and a magnitude 4.5 earthquake were detected in the North's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
South Korean, U.S. and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies put the magnitude of Tuesday's quake at 4.7, 4.9 and 5.2 respectively.
North Korea confirmed the morning suspicions:
North Korea confirmed on Tuesday that it had conducted its third, long-threatened nuclear test, according to the official KCNA news service, posing a new challenge for the Obama administration in its effort to keep the country from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.
In a shocking realization, it is suspected that Iran may benefit from this:
No country is more interested in the results of the North’s nuclear program, or the Western reaction, than Iran, which is pursuing its own uranium enrichment program. The two countries have long cooperated on missile technology, and many intelligence officials believe they share nuclear knowledge as well, though so far there is no hard evidence.
No evidence. Although there were all those dead North Korean technicians who bought the farm when Israel struck Syria's secret reactor back in 2007--which is why North Korea responded with anger so quickly even as the media was sorting out what happened. Syria has been joined at the hip with Iran for several decades now, although the rebellion is severing the links.
I simply assume that anything North Korea develops goes to Iran and vice versa.
Which could mean that Iran can pretend it halted actual weapon design work to convince gullible Westerners that Iran hasn't really decided to build nuclear weapons.
So Iran just subcontracts the nuclear warhead work to North Korea and writes a check when North Korea perfects the design. Throw in a long-range missile design, too.
It's almost like they are an axis of evil, or something.
