Recent satellite imagery and intelligence has indicated increased activity at the Punggye-ri site, where North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January.
Advertisement
The New York Times reported from Seoul that President Park Geun-hye cut short a visit to Laos for a regional summit and condemned the test as showing the “fanatical recklessness of the Kim Jong-un regime”.
The DPRK confirmed the nuclear test after seismic-monitoring agencies reported an natural disaster in the country.
South Korea now believes North Korea conducted a nuclear test, an official with the South Korean Defense Ministry tells CNN.
South Korea’s military said it was about 10 kilotonnes, enough to make it the North’s “most powerful nuclear test ever”.
The test occurred deep underground, making it hard to monitor radiation to determine what type of weapon was used.
It acknowledged that North Korea’s action was “not wise”, but also noted that Seoul’s recent decision to deploy an advanced USA anti-missile system had also damaged stability in the region. A second nuclear test this year is a defiant response to Western pressure on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear ambitions. Russian Federation says the defiant nation must stop further tests and join the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, an quake of magnitude 5.3 was observed in an area near Punggye-ri, where North Korea’s nuclear test site is located.
The longer ranges and mobile launchers give the North greater ability to threaten the tens of thousands of United States troops stationed throughout Asia.
Obama returned early Friday morning from meetings with world leaders in Asia, where North Korea’s nuclear program was on the agenda. Further and even tougher sanctions are still possible, like blocking the export of fuel oil to North Korea.
The Vienna-based IAEA was kicked out of North Korea in 2009. Other experts say initial indications suggest 20 kilotonnes or more.
The envoy added that Kim Jong-un now aims to win the status as nuclear-armed nation, although the global community is unlikely to make such a concession.
Pyongyang had claimed it already possessed a technology of miniaturizing nuclear warhead small enough to fit on ballistic missiles that can reach the USA mainland.
The North has also been angered by a US and South Korean plan to install an anti-missile defence system in the South and by the allies’ massive annual joint military exercises, which are still taking place.
While officials have warned that the North’s submarine-launched missiles could be be fully operational before 2017.
Diplomacy has so far failed to stop North Korea’s progress.
Advertisement
Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the test from Geneva, where he’s trying to focus on the Syria crisis, saying he was confident that North Korea’s key ally China, and Russian Federation, shared the “concerns”, of the United States, but added that “we’re trying still to monitor to see precisely what took place”.
