SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea faced global condemnation and calls for harsh sanctions Monday after it announced that it had set off an atomic explosion underground, a test that thrusts the secretive communist state into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations.
The United States, Japan, China and Britain led a united chorus of criticism, with President Bush saying the reported test poses a threat to global peace and security, and "deserves an immediate response" by the U.N. Security Council, which met to discuss the crisis.
Bush said he had called the leaders of South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, and all had reaffirmed a commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
The reported test came one day after the ninth anniversary of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's accession to power.
Members of the 15-nation Security Council were unanimous in denouncing the claim amid worldwide concern that it could seriously destabilize the region, with even North Korean ally China saying it strongly opposed the move.
"No one defended it, no one even came close to defending it," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. "I was very impressed by the unanimity of the council ... on the need for a strong and swift answer to what everyone agreed amounted to a threat to international peace and security."
Ball State University faculty said it is unlikely North Korea will use its nuclear weapons against other countries. Kevin Smith, associate professor of history who specializes in American foreign policy, said the test is about domestic policy, not military action.
"North Korea's economy is emaciated," he said.
"Their military and especially nuclear programs are on steroids and the rest of their economy is on life support."
Other countries need to support people in North Korea who disagree with the nuclear test, Chin-Sook Pak, associate professor of Spanish, who is from South Korea, said. This is an attention-getting tactic by North Korea, and is a bargaining tool to improve its economic situation, she said.
"My desire is that the ... people of North Korea would somehow gain some support from the international community," she said. "There are a lot more refugees leaving North Korea and that's only growing."
The Security Council had warned the impoverished and isolated nation just two days earlier not to go through with a test, and Bolton said Washington will seek U.N. sanctions to curb North Korea's import and export of material for weapons of mass destruction, as well as its illicit financial activities.
Bolton and key U.S. allies, including Britain and France, said they would seek a resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter that would seek punishing measures, going beyond the limited sanctions in a measure adopted by the council in July after North Korea conducted seven missile tests.
Chapter 7 grants the council the authority to impose a range of measures including breaking diplomatic ties and imposing economic and military action.
The Bush administration repeatedly has said it has no plans to invade North Korea and military action appeared unlikely. But the U.S. proposed stringent U.N. sanctions on Monday, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with Pyongyang's weapons programs, according to a copy of the draft obtained by The Associated Press.
North Korea's U.N. ambassador Pak Gil Yon said the Security Council should congratulate his country instead of passing "useless" resolutions or statements.
AP Television News footage showed North Koreans going about their daily business and there were no signs of heightened alert by security forces in Pyongyang on Monday, hours after their government said it performed a nuclear weapons test.
In the past the North Korean government has limited news in and out of the country, South Korean Sung-Jae Park, Ball State University director emeritus of the Far East Exchange Program, said.
"How North Korea is handling the news media, not many people know what's going on outside their country," Park said. "The people are so isolated and everything is so controlled it is unbelievable."
Part of that problem could be the way North Korea operates, Pak said. While North Korea is still communist, she said it has changed.
"I can't really say if it's communism anymore," she said. "Their ideology is self-sufficiency, totally isolating the society. Now, with global dependency, you cannot survive [that way]."
Bush said the United States was still attempting to confirm that a nuclear test had actually taken place. Still, he said, "such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security."
A U.S. government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the situation, said the seismic event could have been a nuclear explosion, but its small size was making it difficult for authorities to pin down.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu reportedly told lawmakers signs of suspicious movement were spotted at another suspected test site.
The current members of the nuclear club are the United States, Russia, Britain, France, India, Pakistan and China. Israel is widely believed to have the bomb but has not publicly declared.
Reports about the size of the explosion were conflicting. Only Russia said the blast was a nuclear explosion but the reaction of world governments reflected little doubt that they were treating the announcement as fact.
"We have no doubts that it (the test) was nuclear," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Pyongyang's ambassador to Russia, demanding that North Korea "immediately take steps to return to the regime of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty" and to the six-nation talks.
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