NoKo Nuke Try Now?

North Korea Hints That Testing
Of Atomic Bomb May Occur Soon

By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH in Seoul, SOUTH KOREA and GINNY PARKER in Tokyo
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 10, 2005 4:15 a.m.; Page A15

A North Korean official told a visiting Japanese scholar last week that Pyongyang would need to test an atomic bomb to prove it has successfully built nuclear weapons and hinted that such a step could be taken shortly, the scholar said.

"You will know soon" whether a nuclear test will be conducted, said Pak Hyon Jae, deputy director of a North Korean Foreign Ministry think tank, according to Yasuhiko Yoshida, a professor at Japan's Osaka University of Economics and Law.