Japanese politician and pro-wrestling icon Kanji Inoki met a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday in his latest visit to Pyongyang, a day after North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test in defiance of heavy worldwide sanctions.
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“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 statement said.
Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the IISS-Americas think tank, said it was worth seeing if China might increase pressure on the North in return for the United States and South Korea halting plans to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile defense system created to protect against North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats.
U.S. ambassador Samantha Power said the council must use “every tool at its disposal” including new sanctions “to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences for its unlawful and risky actions”.
In a statement via the state-run KNCA news agency, Pyongyang said the tests had confirmed the movement of nuclear warheads that had “been standardised to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets”.
The test was announced hours after the U.S. Geological Survey detected a magnitude 5.3 quake in the hermetic nation’s northeast test site – a reading that exceeded those recorded after previous nuke tests.
Despite a United Nations ban and several sets of global sanctions since 2006, the isolated communist state has so far carried out two atomic tests this year.
Indonesia also called on all parties concerned to refrain from steps that could lead to further escalation of tension and committed to political and diplomatic settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through appropriate negotiations for promoting peace and stability in the region.
United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula is one of the most serious issues facing the world because the impact of North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons would be far greater than the casualties in Syria and other conflicts.
DPRK conducted the nuclear test on Friday, its fifth nuclear test and eight months following the previous one.
“If previous tests were conducted with the goal of acquiring the nuclear bomb, the newest test shows that the North finally owns a real, weaponized nuclear bomb”, Kim said.
“Now, I am full of confidence that if the enemies make any little provocations we will make a counter attack and we will surely win”, said Rim Jong Su, 42.
Still, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter singled out the role he said China should play.
It will raise serious worries in many world capitals that North Korea has moved another step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the United States mainland. “If they have not reached that capability today, they certainly will relatively soon with further nuclear test explosions and ballistic missile tests”, he said. “I think China will take more effective methods to carry out the sanction”. “China has and shares an important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it”.
The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, was more powerful in fact than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates.
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“The important thing is, that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience”.
