Sanguine South Koreans say blast is a stunt

For the people of South Korea's second-largest city Busan and the capital Seoul, North Korea's nuclear test is merely the latest in a series of stunts pulled by the north's leader Kim Jong-il designed to prop up his regime, one that most Koreans consider bankrupt. This is not a real threat for them.

Lee Chong-kuen, 55, who has a trading business in Busan, says the tests were just the latest in a series of ploys by Kim to keep his military afloat.

"North Korea's military needs to stay powerful so that Kim can feel the country can compete with the United States," he said. "He needs to keep the population poor and this is a great way to do it."

While the international focus has been on the six-nation talks involving both Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, South Korea has also been trying to work out a lasting peace treaty with North Korea to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The two countries have been technically at war since then.

The South Koreans have had to deal with a lot of sabre-rattling from across the border in recent years, which goes some way towards explaining why most people shrug when asked about the tests and say they have seen it all before.

There were the long-range tests in 1998 when a missile flew off across the Sea of Japan, signalling that Pyongyang had nuclear intentions. Then there were the announcements that the North Koreans were building nuclear capability, that North Korea had left the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, the news they had the bomb, more missile tests and then this week's boast that Pyongyang had tested a nuclear device.

"It's been a while since North Korea has been in the limelight. I don't think it's a big threat because they always use something like an attack to win international attention," said Park Ji-yong, 23, a student in Seoul.

In Busan a woman sighed, "This has been going on a long time. He's always throwing around this nuclear issue, and hates losing limelight because of the Iraq thing.

"Everyone thinks he's insane, but clever too. But I don't really see it as a big threat," she said. "If they've got the bomb, then we should have it too. Korea is now the ninth nuclear power so we feel we should also have nuclear weapons."

- INDEPENDENT