News24 01/09/2003�North Korea threatens to test nuke:
"North Korea threatened at six-nation talks in Beijing Thursday to formally declare itself a nuclear power and conduct a nuclear test, US officials said.
North Korea's envoy to the talks, Kim Yong-Il, made the declaration in front of the US delegation and envoys from Russia, China, South Korea and Japan on talks on the 10 month-old nuclear crisis, two officials said.
'We are taking it seriously but they have said these kind of things before,' said one of the officials on condition of anonymity."
____________________

{Possibly a key difference between North Korea and Iraq is their relative geographical distance from Israel.}