Life as usual in North Korea after nuclear test

BEIJING, Oct 9 (Reuters) As much of the world condemned North Korea's announcement today that it had joined the club of nuclear states with a successful test, life was business as usual on the streets of the isolated and impoverished country.

Foreign residents said there was no heightened security or troop presence on the broad avenues of Pyongyang, the country's showpiece capital.

''There is normal movement in the city. There don't appear to be any special measures,'' said one resident. ''We've noticed no unusual activity here,'' said another.

Pyongyang, where energy shortages mean the traffic lights remain dark and where few private cars ply the roads anyway, is only a two-hour drive from the heavily fortified border with South Korea, where leaders on Monday called on the North to scrap all plans related to its nuclear programme.

But as news of the test sent markets tumbling and brought criticism and concern from its neighbours, residents of North Korea, whose founder Kim Il-sung and his son and current leader Kim Jong-il are revered as gods, carried on as usual.

''This is the power of our great leader Kim Jong-il's military-first policy,'' Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a hotel worker as saying, referring to the country's policy of prioritising the military.

Decades of command economy and a tight rein on free markets mean Pyongyang's streets are free of the bustle and commerce common to neighbouring Asian capitals, and problems like fuel shortages and lack of spare parts mean the manufacturing sector operates at an estimated 25 to 50 per cent of capacity.

But the country of 23 million appears to have spared no expense in developing its military, whose personnel are said to receive special perks and privileges.

North Korea is also chronically short of food -- up to 10 percent of the population died in the 1990s due to famine and it still relies on handouts from its neighbours and aid agencies to make up for its grain shortfalls.

But its citizens echoed its official news agency in expressing pride that their country had joined the club of nuclear nations.

''I am encouraged,'' Kyodo quoted a second hotel worker as saying.

REUTERS DKB ND2252