North Korea says it set off an underground nuclear explosion today a powerful blast that drew immediate, worldwide condemnation.
The U.N. Security Council is meeting in New York to discuss the situation. President Bush says the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea all agree the Council should take decisive action.
International monitors confirmed that a seismic tremor Monday morning in northeast North Korea suggested a nuclear blast. Estimates of the blast's size varied, with South Korea saying it had an explosive force of less than one thousand tons of T.N.T. Russian officials said it may have been as much as 15 thousand tons of T.N.T. -- about the same size as the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
South Korean intelligence officials said there are indications the North may be preparing another test.
