The U.S. president reiterated the country’s commitment to the security of its allies in Asia and around the world, Earnest added.
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Ned Price, the United States National Security Council spokesperson, said, “We are aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula in the vicinity of a known North Korean nuclear test site”.
The 5.0-magnitude natural disaster Friday is the largest of the four past quakes associated with North Korean nuclear tests, according to South Korea’s weather agency.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said that the North may have believed that the dispute among South Korea, the United States and China over THAAD would allow it to conduct the nuclear test without any repercussions. It conducted a fourth nuclear test in January this year.
The US Air Force is expected to start flying the WC-135 Constant Phoenix Aircraft in the coming hours to take air samples and see if it can determine a nuclear event occurred.
North Korea says the launch was aimed at advancing nuclear warhead technologies.
The global community imposed strict sanctions after the last nuclear test in January.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday criticizing North Korea for carrying out a test with “disregard” for worldwide objections.
South Korea said the test showed the “maniacal recklessness” of leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea deployed its most trusted newsreader on Friday to herald the success of its fifth nuclear test on state television.
The test is another slap in the face to the North’s chief ally China which has been under pressure to rein in its behavior, and diminishes any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.
Not only has the range of the weapons successfully tested jumped significantly, but the country is working to flawless new platforms for launching them – submarines and mobile launchers – giving the North greater ability to threaten the tens of thousands of US troops stationed throughout Asia. Leader Kim says the country has acquired a fully-equipped nuclear attack capability and also put the US mainland within striking distance. Alongside the nuclear test, the North Korean military has sent a number of projectiles and missiles into the sea since March and kept up its anti-American and anti-South Korean rhetoric.
North Korea confirmed Friday it had tested a nuclear warhead created to be mounted on ballistic missiles.
US intelligence estimated the first North Korean test, in October 2006, produced an explosion equal to less than 1 kiloton or the equivalent of under 1,000 tons of TNT. The two had met Tuesday in Hangzhou, China, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, and reached a consensus on enforcing sanctions against North Korea.
This photo taken on September 9, 2016, shows a county in North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, following a possible nuclear test by the communist state.
President Park Geun-hye called Kim Jong Un’s regime “fanatically reckless”.
North Korea claimed its January test was of a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, which can be far more powerful than other nuclear devices.
The latest nuclear test by North Korea is estimated to produced a blast equivalent to 10 kilotons – twice the power of the country’s last test, according to Korea’s Meteorological Administration.
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“North Korea’s boast of a technologically game-changing nuclear test defied both tough global sanctions and long-standing diplomatic pressure to curb its nuclear ambitions. The long-suffering people of North Korea need a regime that focuses on their needs not provocative behaviour that represents a global and regional threat”.
