Japan denounces N. Korea's nuke test

Japan denounced North Korea for conducting a second nuclear test Monday and is believed to be making preparations to seek an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to deal with the situation.

The test, which Pyongyang around midday announced had been conducted, "is a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution and is absolutely impermissible," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters.

Tokyo will "make adamant responses including (asking) the Security Council" to convene an emergency meeting, said Kawamura, the top government spokesman.

Japan is expected to propose in the early hours of Monday in New York, or Monday afternoon Japan time, that Russia, the chair of the Security Council, convene an emergency meeting, said a U.N. diplomatic source in New York.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency announced around midday that the North successfully carried out its second underground nuclear test.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said it detected seismic waves from North Korea around 9:54 a.m., with the focus located almost identical to the origin of percussions from the North's first underground nuclear test conducted in October 2006, where seismic activity is rare.

After Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution against North Korea, expressing "the gravest concern" and calling for all U.N. members to take wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions.

The Japanese government set up a special task force Monday to deal with the second nuclear test at the emergency management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office.

Japanese officials began contacting their U.S. and South Korean counterparts with an eye on drafting and submitting a new U.N. resolution calling for additional sanctions, while considering reinforcing Japan's own sanctions, officials said.

The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, showed readiness to send up Air Self-Defense Force aircraft, upon request from within the government, to test the atmosphere for any change in radioactivity levels.

The ASDF's T-4 training aircraft were dispatched for the same purpose the last time the North tested a nuclear device, Defense Ministry officials said.