France: Claimed N.Korea Nuke Test Failed (AP)

France: Claimed N.Korea Nuke Test Failed


Wednesday October 11, 2006 9:16 PM

AP Photo VMI102

By JAMEY KEATEN

Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) - France said outright for the first time Wednesday
that North Korea's proclaimed nuclear test produced such a small
blast that it must have failed, and analysts warned such challenging
talk could lead Pyongyang to try again.

World powers stepped up a hunt for clues about the insular communist
regime's test, with Britain sending refueling jets to join Japanese
aircraft trawling the skies for any traces of radiation.

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France's Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said French, American
and other scientists had detected a blast of "relatively limited size."

"In any case, if this was a nuclear explosion, it would be a case of a
failed explosion," she said on Europe-1 radio.

Such speculation about a dud test could be read as a challenge by Kim
Jong Il, the North's reclusive leader, to consider carrying out a second
test to prove naysayers wrong, analysts said.

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