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The world lurched Sunday when North Korea announced it had safely conducted an underground nuclear weapon test - the first in nearly a decade on the global stage and an event that could trigger a nuclear arms race in Asia and around the globe.

The development quickly was condemned by President Bush and described as "hostile" by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has negotiated with the North Koreans for years in a futile attempt to get that nation to renounce nuclear weapons.

The United Nations Security Council almost surely will consider sanctions, even as it is expected this week to approve the appointment of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon as the next UN secretary general. This could be fortuitous or disastrous, depending on North Korea, which, to date, has acted more like a renegade than a global citizen. Likewise, Iran.

Ban, Bush and possibly even Richardson may need a full-court diplomatic press at this point just to get the North Koreans back to the negotiating table. The hope then is that its leaders can be persuaded, by diplomacy, military threats, economic sanctions or economic inducements, of the wisdom of abandoning nuclear weapons.

At this point, it may be a lost cause, but the world, led by the United States, must try, because nonproliferation is vital. Keeping the nuclear club as contained as possible is essential to regional, global and American national security - particularly in a growing era of terrorism. A nuclear arms race in Asia, in which Japan or South Korea feel an urgent need to acquire nuclear weapons, threatens to cause nuclear ripples around the globe.

Yet, to have any real chance for success, the Bush administration will need to adopt a new paradigm, and a humble one at that. It will have to acknowledge the limitations of the world's last remaining superpower and ask all nations for help in undertaking seriously the regional and global nuclear disarmament that is vital to nonproliferation, a test ban and peace.

The administration may have to acknowledge that the United States exists on the same planet as North Korea and that face-to-face, parity negotiations - as Richardson has long advocated in dealing with nuclear rogues North Korea and Iran - has the best chance of success.

For most of the last decade, the world had been, as far as we know, nuclear-test-free. The two most powerful nuclear weapons states, Cold Warriors Russia and the United States, at least have been slowly - too slowly, some fairly argue - reducing their nuclear arsenals and refraining voluntarily from nuclear weapons tests. Other nations, including China, similarly have observed the informal ban.

China and France rushed to complete their nuclear testing in 1996 - the year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was scheduled to take effect. Pakistan conducted the last series of known nuclear tests in 1998.

Yet, eight years later, the treaty remains a goal, not a reality. In part, critics would argue, that's because the United States retreated from the leadership role it played in drafting the treaty. While dozens of nations have signed the treaty, only 34 of the 44 states needed to ratify it - and place it in force - have done so.

It is worth noting today, sadly, that both North Korea and the United States are not among the ratifiers. President Bill Clinton signed the treaty, but the Senate has never ratified it. Officially, the United States remains prepared to conduct tests at the Nevada Test Site whenever necessary to maintain the safety, reliability and security of its own nuclear arsenal.

Still, even in this conflicted environment, it's a gray day, indeed, when the most awesome of "weapons of mass destruction" - a nuclear bomb - is detonated for test purposes. The implications are provocative.

If the North Korean test is confirmed, it ultimately means that the elite nuclear fraternity has another member, the world has another nuclear arsenal about which to worry, and we all are a little less safe.