Not according to the US.
Kim Jong Il is full of crap. If it were a nuclear blast, we would know it. Too many people have too much equipment for it to not be detected.
This is a case where I'd feel a whole lot better seeing KJI quoted saying this by a major media source. Who is "The Bentinel"?
LOL.
I think you need to add the "Humor" keyword.
Surely the UN will seek prosecution for violating the Nuclear Weapons test ban.
Blah Blah Blah nuke dud... We have surveillance capable of determining whether or not it was a nuke... Kim John blah blah blah...
You should have mentioned that this is from a satirical site.
Either the good guys are conspiring to shush everything up to minimize public hysteria about NK testing its nukes, or North Korea's government just shot itself in the foot (in more ways than one).
Leni
I think they just got caught in their bluff.
Kim truly is crazy enough to think nobody would be able to tell it wasn't nuclear. And, that close to the Chinese border, China would kick their ass because of the fallout.
not that I believe this, but -- he nukes himself? how much empty land do they have anyway?
Secretary of State Colin Powell called the admission "ludicrous, ill-timed, and patently false," pointing to mounting evidence that the explosion and resulting cloud was caused by conventional explosives, likely due to an accident. "Just when this closed nation should be exposing the area to national scrutiny in a bid for international aid to help it deal with the aftermath of this horrific blast, they are instead using it as a bargaining chip. Kim Jong Il is no better than Saddam."
Officials with KCNA, the North's official news agency, said that Powell was "misinformed" and that they "possess evidence that positively identifies the explosion as having resulted from a nuclear weapon test." The evidence is considered to be conclusive, but, said one official, "Release of the materials at this time would constitute a national security breach."
Seismograph stations surrounding North Korea report detecting the blast, but that the signature is not consistent with a nuclear test. "It registered more like an above-ground chemical explosives blast," reported one such station, "In fact, the signature suggests it was a timed series of twenty-five blasts, approximately one-half second apart." This lends credence to the theory that an outside agency entered North Korea and purposely sabotaged the site, thought to be a nuclear weapons research facility. "That would be an awful shame," said Powell, when asked about the possibility, "But it was a fairly inexpensive operation. I mean, it would be inexpensive. I assume. If that's what it was."
It could have been a nuke test that was so bungled that that the yield was way down with pyrotechnics way up. Thus lots of smoke, but not much of a thud to be picked up by seismographs.
No, wait...he'd probably enjoy that.
It's not the Onion, but sort of a Bent onion. Maybe a green onion.
I had to read it and check it out before I made a "serious" comment.
But I would like to know what the real story on the explosion is.
humor?
Does Kim Young II try to dupe the U.S. into something to provide John Kerry an opening?
We immediately would have to swallow Kerry's wailing of having reacted without sufficient notice and consultation with the U.N.