South Korea’s military officials said the test was the most powerful yet, with an explosive yield estimated at 10 kilotons.
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Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said North Korea’s nuclear test was “unacceptable” and would be protested. In an angry statement released after the U.N. Security Council condemned its submarine-launched ballistic missile test late last month, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Pyongyang warned of “deadly strikes to be made by the enraged people” of North Korea.
A seismic tremor was recorded in an area around North Korea’s known nuclear site on Friday, and was suspected to be the fifth nuclear test by the isolated nation, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. “North Korea’s nuclear development is becoming a graver threat to Japan’s safety and severely undermines the peace and safety of the region and the global community”, he said.
South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, called it an act of self-destruction showing the maniacal recklessness of leader Kim Jong-un.
The top diplomats from the three countries suggested a punitive action against North Korea’s testing of nuclear weapons.
“South Korea, the U.S. and Japan agree to swiftly find additional measures to fill loopholes in Resolution 2270 through close collaboration, which will be really painful for North Korea”, a foreign ministry official quoting Yun and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. 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. Talks involving world and regional powers have failed to rein in the North’s nuclear programme.
Its flurry of demonstrations of military might this year may reflect a greater sense of urgency to prove it can make good on Kim Jong Un’s vow to build ever better nukes while also keeping its economy afloat despite all of the pressure, isolation and worldwide sanctions that policy generates.
But Pyongyang also has reasons to be nervous.
North Korea 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.
But aside from fear-mongering and posturing – just what does North Korea hope to achieve?
This is the fifth overall nuclear test conducted by the isolated nation, whose growing nuclear capabilities will be a major challenge for the next United States leadership to face. “Both ministers shared the view that they are completely on the same page over the fifth nuclear test”. Further and even tougher sanctions are still possible, like blocking the export of fuel oil to North Korea. The question is whether it can play them well enough to get what its ruling regime really wants: global recognition, security guarantees and, at the most fundamental level, its own continued survival.
US wholesale inventories were unchanged in July as previously reported and sales fell, suggesting a limited boost to economic growth from restocking in the third quarter.
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The ROC government reiterated its support for the idea that all the countries concerned should resolve the Korean Peninsula issue through peaceful dialogue, and jointly maintain peace and stability on the peninsula and in the East Asian region, the statement said.
