For the past two decades, Washington has been struggling in vain to stop North Korea’s bellicose, anti-American leaders from arming the country with nuclear weapons. The minor opposition People’s Party also slammed Pyongyang, saying cooperation and talks are the answer, not missiles or nuclear bombs.
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Beyond crippling North Korea financially, other options include diplomatic ostracism: Katharine Moon, Brookings Institution’s SK-Korea Foundation Chair, has floated throwing North Korea out of the United Nations altogether, and written that nations with diplomatic ties with Pyongyang ought to pull their ambassadors. “As a South Korean citizen, I deplore this”.
“Scientists (from). the DPRK carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead newly studied and manufactured by them at the northern nuclear test ground”, a TV announcer said, using the North’s official name.
Yukiya Amano says in a statement that the test is a “deeply troubling and regrettable act”.
“We must lodge a strong protest”, he said. State-run Xinhua news agency briefly quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement “firmly opposing” the test. But they center on a technological mystery that has long bedeviled outside experts: How far has North Korea gotten in efforts to consistently shrink down nuclear warheads so they can fit on long-range missiles?
China has provided cover to North Korea from worldwide denunciations of its nuclear program.
“That means John Key should raise the issue, particularly amongst the strategic players in the region, South Korea, the United States and most notably China, which wields the most influence over North Korea”.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in Laos after a summit of Asian leaders ended there on Thursday, said it was a nuclear test, her office said.
Earnest says Obama reiterated the unbreakable US commitment to the security of America’s allies in Asia and around the world. The spokesman says Obama indicated he would continue to consult America’s allies and partners in the days ahead “to ensure provocative actions from North Korea are met with serious consequences”. “This will only escalate the situation”, he said. But the announcement came hours after Seoul said Pyongyang had staged another atomic test in its Punggye-ri nuclear test site near the border with China.
“If it turns out that North Korea has carried out a nuclear test, that is something we can not tolerate”, Abe told reporters.
North Korea has also performed a series of unsuccessful missile tests in recent months which are part of its push for a nuclear-armed missile that could one day reach the American mainland. But numerous rounds of sanctions so far only have seemed to strengthen Kim Jong Un’s resolve to show off his military might.
South Korea’s military believed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) might have conducted the “most powerful” nuclear test so far on Friday after an artificial quake was detected at a site where its fourth nuclear test was carried out earlier this year.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Friday that “there is a possibility that North Korea has forced a nuclear test”, citing the temblor showing wave patterns from a non-seismic source.
Before the confirmation, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly said that evidence pointed to the possibility that the quake had not occurred naturally.
Besides founding member India, EAS includes the ten members from ASEAN and Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US.
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported the country’s defence ministry was preparing to dispatch aircraft to analyse air samples to see if any radiation could be detected.
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Its most powerful explosion to date follows a test in January that prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose tightened sanctions that increased North Korea’s isolation but failed to prevent it from accelerating weapons development.
