WASHINGTON AND THE UNITED NATIONS — The United States and allied powers threatened Monday to impose new penalties on North Korea after the defiant regime announced its second nuclear bomb test, but their leverage in derailing the weapons program appeared limited.
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, meeting in emergency session in New York, denounced the test as a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution. China and Russia, usually North Korea's defenders, joined with France, Britain and the United States in the statement. The council planned to meet again today to consider further steps.
President Obama described the test as a "blatant violation of international law," and declared that the United States and other world powers "must take action in response."
U.S. officials insisted that the blast, and a subsequent test of short-range missiles, did not catch them by surprise. But the timing is bad for an administration facing a nuclear threat in Iran and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Consumed by those crises, the Obama team has yet to develop its formal policy on North Korea.
While U.S. officials said they expected world powers to pull together, some acknowledged that sanctions were not likely to cause North Korea to quickly change a course of action that began late last year, when Pyongyang declared it was ending participation in six-country disarmament talks, tested a long-range rocket and expelled international nuclear inspectors.
Monday's test was viewed in South Korea, Japan and some other countries as a more disturbing development than the low-yield 2006 test, which was widely seen as a failure. While few believe North Korea would launch a nuclear attack, a nuclear-armed Pyongyang would raise the possibility of terrorists acquiring a device and would put the regime in a vastly stronger position in negotiating with its neighbors and the United States.
China said after the test that it was "resolutely opposed" to it, according to a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official New China News Agency. The Kremlin issued an unusually harsh condemnation, expressing "extremely serious concern."
U.S. officials were pleased with those strong reactions. "What's important is not as much what's in the sanctions as the fact that there is unity," one U.S. official said. Even so, it remained unclear how far China and Russia would go in trying to punish the Pyongyang regime.
