Whoa, where in the world did this come from?

North Korea is saying they’ve had a successful underground nuclear weapons test on Monday. While they’ve been busy testing missiles the last month or so, this one seems out of the blue – well, to me anyway.

There seems to be a lot of gaps in the story thus far, but here is what CNN has:

The announcement came little more than an hour after the U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.7 seismic disturbance at the site of North Korea’s first nuclear test, in October 2006. The North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency said Monday’s test was conducted “as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way.”

“The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology,” KCNA announced.

Let’s assume this is correct and indeed a nuke this, not some HUGE pile of normal explosives, why is North Korea testing another nuke?  Are they attempting to gain attention from the west (and their neighbors) because they are looking for some type of concession?  Is there a political problem internal to the country and this is the governments way of flexing muscle?

This all seems very… oddly timed.

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2. North Korea also test-fires short-range missile
3. U.S. set to “intercept” North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes
4. China Suspends diplomatic ties with North Korea
5. Reminder – Nuclear inspectors visit newly revealed Iran plant