North Korea ups the ante by pledging a nuclear test - Boston Globe

By Anthony Faiola and Robin Wright, Washington Post | October 4, 2006 TOKYO -- A pledge by North Korea yesterday to conduct a nuclear test to bolster its defenses against the United States dramatically raised tensions in the region and marked the communist government's first unambiguous public threat to demonstrate itself as a nuclear power. Although North Korea has verbally declared that it possesses nuclear devices -- US intelligence officials have estimated the nation may now have as many as ...