Financial Times FT.com

Pyongyang triggers first crisis for Abe

By David Pilling in Tokyo

Published: October 9 2006 08:36 | Last updated: October 10 2006 02:56

North Korea's boast that it had tested a nuclear weapon underground came just minutes after Shinzo Abe, Japan's new prime minister, touched down on the Korean peninsula.

He had come to Seoul for a bilateral summit that was intended - like his visit to Beijing the day before - to thaw relations with a strategically important neighbour. Instead, he flew into an international crisis.

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