That came after North Korean media said the North had miniaturised nuclear warheads to fit on ballistic missiles and quoted Mr Kim as calling on the military to prepare for a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” against the USA and South Korea.
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“We call again on North Korea to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its worldwide commitments and obligations”, he said.
North Korean scientists and technicians have been scrambling to boost the country’s nuclear capabilities ahead of a major party congress in May, causing key military secrets to be exposed, intelligence authorities here said Sunday.
The North Korean People’s Army fired the missile into the East Sea at 5.55 a.m. from Sukchun, north of Pyongyang, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
In response, the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions blocking individuals and enterprises from doing business with the North Korea. Power stressed the link between the dismal human rights situation in North Korea and “its unsafe pursuit of nuclear weapons” at the start of a panel with four abused women who fled the country, including one whose husband sold their son to a wealthy couple “for a little money and two bars of soap”.
A few days later, North Korean President Kim Jong-Un announced that a nuclear warhead explosion test and firings of “several kinds” of ballistic rockets would be carried out “in a short time”.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.
United States defence officials said they had tracked two launches – both believed to be medium- range Rodong missiles fired from road-mobile launch vehicles. This was a departure from China’s previous staunch stance that there could be no dialogue without North Korea.
The South Korean defense official said Seoul has no immediate plans to try to retrieve debris of the missile that appeared to have landed in the waters side Japan’s air defense identification zone. South Korea’s defense ministry called the launch a threat to peace in the global community.
“It is highly likely” that the Punggye-ri test site in the northeast “is capable of supporting additional tests at any time”, the U.S.-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University said on its 38 North website, showing commercial satellite imagery taken on Monday.
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“Once the buttons of striking means are pushed, those means will be launched to bring a disaster and ruin to the U.S”.
