Drudge siren. Fox reporting. Allah monitoring: U.S. intel can't confirm. 11:57pm Eastern update: James Rosen reporting on Fox: Learned from a senior Bush administration official, test confirmed. But the North Koreans "may not have gotten what they wanted...they were hoping for a test that would result in an explosion of 400 kilotons. Prelim reports show that it came in under that." More: "US did indeed receive early warning from the Chinese." Yonhap News: North Korea is believed to have tested a nuclear weapon in the eastern part of the country Monday morning, a South Korean defense source said. "We detected the explosive sound from Hwadaeri near Kilju in North Hamgyong Province at 10:36 a.m.(KST)," a senior Defense Ministry official said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the information. But South Korea's military has yet to raise its alert level beyond usual defense situations, he said. The troops are still maintaining a Watchcon 3 surveillance status and Defcon 4 defense readiness status. 11:52pm Eastern. Bret Baier of Fox News reporting that the US was warned by China, Japan, and South Korea before the reported test. Confirmation "looking more and more likely." Reminder of SecDef Donald Rumsfeld's remarks on NoKo nuclear ramifications: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday if North Korea successfully tests a nuclear weapon, it will show weakness on the part of the international community. "And that failure … is something that the international community would have to register and ask itself how comfortable are we being that ineffective in this situation," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon during a visit by Croatian Defense Minister Berislav Roncevic. His comments came as U.S. officials warned North Korea anew not to test a nuclear weapon... ...Rumsfeld also said that a successful North Korean test could prompt other countries to pursue nuclear weapons. "Because of the ineffectiveness, and the lack of cohesion and the inability to marshal sufficient leverage to prevent North Korea from proceeding toward a nuclear program … it will kind of lower the threshold, and other countries will step forward with it," Rumsfeld said. He added that depending on whether the test is above or below ground, the United States has as good a capability of detecting it as any country. But he declined to say whether or not it would trigger any U.S. military action. "I wouldn't be the person who would make a decision like that. That's a decision for the country, and a decision for president," Rumsfeld said. Bryan Preston's thoughts from Friday: Diplomacy isn’t going to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. That’s the bottom line. North Korea sees nukes as its last best hope of survival, while the rest of the world (minus China and possibly Russia) see North Korean nukes as an intolerable threat. I don’t see a peaceful end to this. Either China deals with Kim, or we do. And it doesn’t look like we will. Breitbart/AP has this headline: North Korea Says Nuclear Test Successful
Oct 08 10:54 PM US/Eastern Nothing further yet.
Austin Bay looked at trouble on the China/N. Korean border earlier today. See also StrategyPage and the London Times. Austin from this morning:
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