North Korea claims to have carried out a successful test of a nuclear weapon -- its first.

If true (and everyone appears to be taking it quite seriously), we live in a more dangerous, destabilized world.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has a little thingee they like to call the Doomsday Clock:

My prediction? If this little stunt of North Korea's is true, it will move the clock ahead by at least two minutes.

In the coming years, we will see if Japan, for one, decides to go nuclear itself.

And finally, NK says it tested the bomb because it feared an invasion (it's not likely even Pyongyang believes that, but it's what NK said). Under what conditions would they actually use one? Or is this all extremely high-stakes brinksmanship?

OTOH, the Toronto Star's Richard Gwyn noted around the time of the Iraq war that the reason why the U.S. was invading Iraq and not North Korea was because Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction while North Korea did.

Anyway, here are some story links:

NYT: North Korea reports 1st nuclear arms test

BBC: North Korea claims nuclear test

BBC: History of tension over North Korea

How seriously does the Beeb take this story? It used this rare layout:

CNN: North Korea Nuclear Tension (special report)

MSNBC: Nuclear states at a glance (AP)

SBS: North Korea nuclear crisis timeline (AFP)

And I can only say, thank God for this news:

That was the top story at Google News Canada! Three cheers for automated news judgment!! :^)