Things have gone nuclear up north.

"North Korea said Monday that it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test. The country's official Korean Central News Agency said the test was performed successfully and there was no radioactive leakage from the site...

"South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has convened a meeting of security advisers over the issue, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, adding that intelligence over the test has been exchanged between concerned countries.

"The nuclear test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (0136 GMT) in Hwaderi near Kilju city, Yonhap reported, citing defense officials..."


Now that a few days have passed, I've noticed more stories that mention the DPRK's "claimed nuclear test." Because the explosive yield would seem to have been relatively low -- depending who's talking -- there's debate about whether there was a mistake, or if they intended for the blast to be small.

I saw a video segment (speculative, of course) on South Korean TV tonight that laid out a scenario in which the explosion took place inside a sealed, purpose-built cave under a mountain. The sealing would prevent radioactive material from being emitted, which would hamper efforts to determine what type of blast occurred.

But what am I saying?

The DPRK is threatening (and they do indulge in a lot of threats) to pursue more tests, and if --if-- they're bold, destructive or unrestrained enough to do one above or just below ground, then we have to start thinking more seriously about getting out of here. Fallout is no one's friend.

"While few argue Kim Jong-il's regime faked the whole event by packing a disused mine with conventional explosives, there is a growing view that while Pyongyang did carry out a nuclear weapons test it was only partially successful."

"The Pentagon said it had dispatched planes carrying sensitive atmospheric sensors into international airspace along the North Korean coast, in hope of picking up a whiff of radiation vented from the test site. But so far, they said, none has been detected."

I do want to point out one other thing:

Tonight, during a class with three advanced elementary students, they had to draw images for postage stamps (an exercise related to letterwriting). One of the girls drew an outline of Korea, then asked me how to spell bukhan, which is how the North is referred to. I told her and then she quietly continued her drawing.

When she was done, she showed me the image, which had two round-headed stick figures reaching out across the armistice line, with the characters for the word tongil -- unification -- written at the top.

And so it goes.