The Obama team has suggested recent North Korean provocations amount to a bargaining ploy, but former Bush administration hardliner John Bolton and North Korea analyst Jim Walsh offer different, more ominous readings.

Obama himself is now hinting at a tougher stance than simply seeking the restart of six-party nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea.

"The United States and the international community must take action in response," the president said in hastily arranged remarks at the White House ahead of a Memorial Day ceremony for war dead.

Pyongyang's recent "reckless" actions, including an April 5 ballistic missile test, have defied UN resolutions, the Obama said. "As a result, North Korea is deepening its own isolation and inviting stronger international pressure."

In addition to the underground nuclear test, short-range missiles were reportedly launched on Monday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began telephone consultations on Monday with Washington's partners in the so-called six-party process in order to chart a course of action, a State Department spokesman said.

The UN Security Council was due to meet later Monday to take up the matter.

In the six-party talks involving the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, North Korea agreed in 2007 to scrap its nuclear programs for energy aid.

But the negotiations lapsed late last year over a dispute about disarmament verification steps, and after the United Nations tightened sanctions following the April missile launch the North vowed to conduct a second nuclear blast and more missile tests unless the world body apologized.

Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations under president George W. Bush, said Obama's emphasis on diplomacy rather than confrontation with Pyongyang gave North Korea the excuse it needed to carry out the new nuclear test.

"This is a moment of truth for this administration," Bolton told AFP.

"They put all of their faith in the six-party talks. The North Koreans have thumbed their nose at the administration and now we have to see what kind of stuff they (the new administration) are made of," Bolton said.

He urged Obama's team to first put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism following its removal in the waning months of the Bush administration.

Bolton also urged the UN Security Council to expel Pyongyang from the world body as a "persistent violator" of UN resolutions.

Ultimately, Bolton said, North Korea wants nuclear weapons because it is motivated by the desire to preserve its isolated dictatorship, adding it has no interest in nuclear diplomacy.

Walsh, an analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also questioned a standard view that North Korea was taking a hard line to win concessions in negotiations such as direct talks with the United States.

The Obama administration is open to such talks, but has been rebuffed so far by the communist regime.

The incident may have "nothing to do with bargaining," Walsh said on CNN.

It may reflect "internal dynamics... as it begins to grapple with the issue of succession and leadership change" following reports that leader Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke last August.

"If that's what is going on, we're in for more of this for quite some time," he said.

Another analyst, Bruze Klingner of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called on Obama to put more pressure on China, North Korea's closest ally, to back tough sanctions.

"Washington should cease the charade of praising Beijing's behavior in the six-party talks and instead criticize its obstructionism to carrying out the will of the international community as expressed in two UN resolutions," Klingner said.

Victor Cha, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said North Korea may want to pursue negotiations in order to achieve the status as a nuclear weapons state in which it can keep "a residual nuclear deterrent" as part of an eventual deal with the international community.

earlier related report
World fury over North Korea nuclear bomb test
North Korea's nuclear bomb test drew stern rebukes Monday from global leaders with US President Barack Obama warning of "grave" danger and Israel stressing "negative implications" in the Middle East.

South Korea put its military on alert and world powers frustrated by failed diplomatic efforts to rein in Pyongyang demanded a firm response ahead of a United Nations' Security Council emergency meeting later Monday in New York.

Even China, the secretive North's closest international ally, expressed "resolute opposition".

The North Korean explosion -- an underground blast the size of a mid-sized earthquake, according to seismologists -- was a much bigger follow-up to its first nuclear test in 2006.

It came amid reports that Pyongyang also tested a short-range missile.

"North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programs pose a grave threat to the peace and security of the world and I strongly condemn their reckless actions," Obama said in a statement.

He called the testing a "blatant violation of international law" as well as its own public position, saying North Korea had chosen to "ignore" its previous commitment to abandon its nuclear programme.

Obama said North Korea had flauted UN resolutions, with the result it "is not only deepening its own isolation, it's also inviting stronger international pressure.

"That's evident overnight as Russia, China, as well as our traditional allies of South Korea and Japan have all come to the same conclusion: North Korea will not find security and respect through its threats and illegal weapons."

Israel, which along with the United States suspects Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, was clearly referring to Tehran when its foreign ministry said in a statement that "North Korea's nuclear proliferation... has negative implications in this region."

Iran, however, has repeatedly denied charges of a military purpose to its nuclear activities.

In South Korea President Lee Myung-Bak called a special national security council meeting while Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said the testing "raises tensions in the region extremely."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, himself South Korean, said he was "deeply disturbed."

The main powers on the Security Council all strongly condemned North Korea with France urging sanctions against Kim Jong-Il's Stalinist administration, as foreign ministers from Asia and Europe began two days of talks.

"China strongly demands that North Korea keeps its promise of denuclearisation and ceases all actions that could further worsen the situation," the Chinese foreign ministry said in its statement.

Russia, which has sought a role in efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, said the test would "provoke an escalation of tensions in northeast Asia," according to a foreign ministry statement.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the test was a "danger to the world," while South Africa warned the possession of nuclear weapons "constitutes a threat to all humanity."

In Brussels, the NATO military alliance said the "provocative" test was a "serious challenge to peace."

Other countries including Spain and Canada labelled the testing a "provocation". Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it was "reckless" and posed a "grave threat."

Brazil joined in the "vehement condemnation" and called on North Korea to resume multi-party talks on denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

South Korea, Russia, China, the United States and United Nations have sought to engage the North in so-called "six-party" talks on its nuclear programme.

But a 2007 accord broke down with the North's test-firing of a long range missile in April. North Korea angrily reactivated its nuclear programme after being condemned by the Security Council for that action.

John Bolton, a US ambassador to the United Nations under former president George W. Bush, said Obama now faces "a moment of truth" and suggested it was time to expel North Korea from the UN.

Speaking on Fox News television, he said Obama's special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, had recently given North Korea "a signal that they could get away with it."

Bolton also warned of Middle East repercussions, "given the cooperation" between North Korea and Iran on ballistic missiles."

Experts have accused North Korea of using the test blast as a means to secure international concessions.

"They are clearly engaged in a cynical game where they are using nuclear technology to gain economic and energy advantages," said Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

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