North Korea says it has conducted its latest major nuclear test and claims to have the capabilities to mount a warhead on ballistic missiles.
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China, North Korea’s ally, has expressed concern over Pyongyang launching missiles and conducting nuclear tests despite sanctions slapped by the UN.
“Today, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, regardless of universal opposition from the global community, conducted another nuclear test, to which the Chinese government is firmly opposed”, China’s Foreign Ministry said.
The first sign of the test was an natural disaster measuring magnitude 5.0 located near North Korea’s Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site, where all of the country’s tests have been carried out since it began testing in 2006 and where recent satellite imagery had shown fresh activity.
White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said US President Barack Obama, returning from a trip to Asia, had been briefed on the test and had consulted with Park and Abe.
Could North Korea actually put a nuclear warhead atop a rocket and fire it at a potential adversary?
Preliminary data collected by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna indicates that the magnitude of the seismic event detected in North Korea on Friday was greater than a previous one in January, the agency’s chief said.
At 20 to 30 megatonnes, Friday’s reported test is larger than the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the Second World War.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida also confirmed that Japan Meteorological Agency has detected shaking patterns that are not from a naturally occurred earthquake.
China said it resolutely opposed North Korea’s nuclear test today, but is unlikely to follow up with strong action because its influence is limited and it believes the United States and South Korea share responsibility for growing tensions in the region.
South Korea’s military put the force of the blast at 10 kilotonnes, which would still be the North’s most powerful nuclear blast to date.
The DPRK confirmed the nuclear test after various seismic-monitoring agencies reported an quake in the country. Obama said he had told President Xi Jinping that China needs to “work with us more effectively” in combating Kim’s nuclear ambitions.
NHK reported Japan’s Defense Ministry sent a plane to collect data to identify any radioactive materials in its airspace. And last month, a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 310 miles, the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon.
“The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable (North Korea) to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power”, the North said.
North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA claimed the newest nuclear experiment was a success. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Japan’s capital city is also testing water samples and monitoring radiation levels in the air. She also spoke with Obama by phone.
A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Ned Price, says Washington is aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula in the vicinity of a known North Korean nuclear test site.
The U.S. Geological Survey called the seismic activity an “explosion” on its website.
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Concern has been growing that North Korea is testing weapons at an unprecedented pace this year, CNN global correspondent Paula Hancocks said.
