North Korea's communist leader, Kim Jong II, has announced that his country has successfully carried out its first under ground nuclear test. News of the test drew condemnation from around the world, along with the threat of yet more sanctions from the UN Security Council. Other countries in the region, such as India and Pakistan, went nuclear in 1999, but North Korea has a long history of weapons proliferation, and it is feared the country would sell the technology to other totalitarian regimes or even terrorists. Earlier in the year President Ahmadinejad of Iran also attended North Korea's long range missile test. A nuclear North Korea, still officially at war, also makes the prospect of a communist invasion of the South much harder to deal with. 

Quote: "The US Geological Survey said it had detected a 4.2 magnitude quake in North Korea, while a South Korean official said a 3.5 magnitude seismic tremor had been detected in north Hamgyong province, in the north-east. South Korea's Yonhap news agency is reporting that the test took place in Gilju in Hamgyong province at 1036 (0136 GMT). A top Russian military officer said it was "100%" certain that an underground nuclear explosion had taken place.

The Scriptures seem to indicate there will be a nuclear exchange during the tribulation period. Earlier last month I commented on how Israel may be considering a pre-emptive nuclear strike against their enemies. The descriptions in the verses below, with the nations who shall fight against Jerusalem (battle of Armageddon) becoming dust, and Israelis trampling the dust under their feet, along with enemy soldiers literally consuming away before they have a chance to fall down dead, parallels the effects of a nuclear explosion. Some think the verse in Zechariah could also be a literal disease that God will send to afflict the enemies of Israel when He returns.

Zechariah 14:12 
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Malachi 4:1-3 
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble (dust): and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Source BBC