N.KOREA SHOWS THUMB TO WORLD!N.KOREA TEST NUCLEAR BOMB.

North Korea's second underground nuclear test has shown the world that it's only a matter of time before the secretive regime develops the ability to mount an atomic weapon on a missile, analysts say.Monday's blast - by all accounts larger than its first one in 2006 - indicates the impoverished country will keep using nuclear development in efforts to bolster its regime and raise its stature against its main perceived adversary, the United States. The test has also raised fears of increased proliferation.North Korea's defiance in carrying out the explosion, which followed its first test in October 2006 that resulted in censure and sanctions by the United Nations, has met widespread condemnation and cast more doubt over prospects for stalled talks aimed at the country's denuclearization.President Barack Obama said the blast and North Korea's test firings of short-range missiles off its coast "pose a grave threat to the peace and security of the world," while the North responded Tuesday by launching more missiles. And on Wednesday, the North warned South Korea that its decision to participate in a U.S.-led program to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction is equal to a declaration of war.North Korea is believed to have processed enough plutonium over the years for at least a half dozen nuclear bombs.That is paltry compared to the massive arsenals of nuclear powers such as the United States, Russia and China or even newer members of the atomic club like Pakistan.Still, North Korea is making measurable progress and showing its determination to posses a credible enough threat to protect its regime, and is unlikely to back down anytime soon given its increasingly strident tone on the world stage.The North is now "more of a threat because they have more data and information about their bomb design," said Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank devoted to conflict resolution. "They're demonstrating this decisiveness."The size of the explosion is still under debate and will require more analysis to determine. Initial estimates have ranged from a few kilotons to a Russian figure of between 10 kilotons and 20 kilotons.The latter range, considered way too high by analysts including Pinkston and David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, would be comparable to the U.S. weapons that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.Evidence suggests North Korea's ultimate goal is to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile, but analysts vary in their assessment of how close the country is to achieving that objective."It's a weapons program aimed at putting something on a missile to create a credible deterrent," Albright said. He said he thinks North Korea has the ability to mount a weapon now, though he added that questions remain about how reliable it would be.Yoon Deok-min, a professor at South Korea's state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, said North Korea appears to still be in the process of mastering the miniaturization technology required to place a warhead on a missile, though he called its ultimate success just "a matter of time."He said its development of a nuclear-tipped missile is the "worst case" security scenario, noting the country has already deployed intermediate-range ballistic missiles that can travel as far as 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers). That would easily put South Korea and Japan into range and almost reach the U.S. island of Guam.