Hungary considers North Korea’s nuclear test to be a threat against international community

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Pyongyang successfully carried out an underground nuclear test explosion in what would be the impoverished nation's first-ever nuclear weapons test, and a move experts said could destabilize the entire region. The detonation took place somewhat after 0430 CET on Monday near the town of Kilju in the north-east. The Hungarian government said Pyongyang's conduct should not be left without a response. Polgár said in the statement: "It is inevitable that the competent international organizations take swift and firm steps against North Korea."

Hungary, along with almost all other countries of the international community, called on Pyongyang last week to refrain from performing any nuclear tests. It supports all possible measures aimed at securing the Asian region's security by resolving the nuclear crisis, the statement said. World leaders, including US President George W. Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, condemned North Korea for the test. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, expressed serious concern. "The breaking of a de-facto global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing that has been in place for nearly a decade and the addition of a new state with nuclear weapon capacity is a clear setback to international commitments to move towards nuclear disarmament," he said in a statement issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency. (portfolio.hu)