North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Monday morning in Hwaderi near Kilju city. Russia said the nuclear test was equivalent to 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT.

Such an action is not in the interest of East Asia in particular and the world in general.

East Asia has witnessed many calamities. It has experienced the Nanjing massacre, Japan’s other brutal acts during World War II, the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 1950-1953 Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the killing fields in Cambodia. The people of the region still have bitter memories of those days.

Unfortunately, the Korean Peninsula has been a victim of the superpowers’ rivalry. Millions of people were killed on both sides of the peninsula. Families are still separated.

As rays of peace and hope were beginning to warm the peninsula, mostly due to former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung’s Sunshine Policy, again outside powers shattered Koreans’ hopes and pushed the region toward extremism.

The people are not only being forced to live in permanent fear of nuclear confrontation, but they will also have to suffer the environmental consequences of these tests for year to come.

Despite regional and trans-regional rivalries, people on the peninsula and elsewhere are hungry for peace and hate anything that smells of war and blood. They want to bid a final adieu to those gloomy days.

Although South Korea and China have been calling for engagement with North Korea and have warned about the danger of the radicalization of Pyongyang, the U.S. hawks are refusing to be reasonable, as if they want a flare-up.

U.S. officials have even refused to hold bilateral talks as demanded by North Korea, saying it would be rewarding what they usually call a “rogue state” or part of an “axis of evil”.

Yet, Pyongyang’s nuclear test was the latest in a string of foreign policy failures for U.S. President George W. Bush which began with the deadlocked Middle East peace process, and include the so-called war on terror, the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, the Iraq quagmire, and the Israeli war against Lebanon, to name a few.

In light of the fact that nuclear weapons were used for the first time in East Asia -- and we sincerely and worriedly hope that they will never again be used in any part of the world -- the East Asian people are right to be extremely anxious about serious developments in the their own region.

Extremism begets extremism. Thus, North Korea and all the other countries involved should revise their policies, avoid making any decisions which could exacerbate tensions, and return to the negotiating table to deal with the issue in a calm and patient manner in order to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The North Koreans have announced that they would like to see the Korean Peninsula become a nuclear weapons-free zone, so that premise could be a starting point for talks.

Political leaders are responsible for the current situation and should bear in mind that dialogue is always the best way to resolve crises.