North Korea's Nuke Mystery

For all the bragging it has done about its nuclear program, North Korea has never, to anyone's knowledge, tested a nuclear bomb. That's why the world grew alarmed when satellite photos showed what looked like an explosion and a mushroom-shaped cloud over a remote area in the northern part of the country. Pyongyang denied it had exploded a nuke and even escorted a group of foreign ambassadors to the area, where they saw thousands of workers toiling mostly by hand to build a dam. A local official said the blasts were part of an effort to speed up the project. An ambassador who visited the site said the explanation made sense: "You don't make that much progress without some pretty big bangs. This was not just some stage show just for us." But what about the mushroom cloud that was spotted about 60 miles to the west of the dam, near the town of Woltanri? The area doesn't have a river worth damming, former residents say, but it does have a missile base, as well as, according to a frequent visitor, a munitions plant. An accidental explosion of rocket propellant — possibly a missile launch gone awry — could have caused the mushroom cloud, analysts say. Another possibility: Pyongyang blew up something to keep the world guessing about its nuclear intentions — a tactic the regime has used in the past.

One reason to believe North Korea's explanation is its willingness to show outsiders the area, says Baek Nam Soon, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute in Seoul. "If you see a guy named North Korea coming out of a store, you think he must have stolen something," says Baek. "They didn't want that to happen again." In any event, the International Atomic Energy Agency was directing more of its concern last week toward Iran, which was ordered to stop working on uranium enrichment, and South Korea, which admitted conducting nuclear experiments and other possible violations of its nonproliferation pledges. Until South Korea explains what its scientists are up to, North Korea said it would boycott the next round of multinational talks, due to start this month, on its own nuclear program.