Terming the latest nuclear test as “more than brazen defiance”, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said the Council must send a “clear, united and strong message that the worldwide community will never accept a nuclear North Korea”. “South Korea left unguarded before nuclear maniac”, read the banner headline of the top-selling Chosun Ilbo.
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Beyond the United Nations, the test drew opprobrium from world leaders including South Korean President Park Geun Hye and US President Barack Obama.
“Gone are the days never to return when the U.S. could make a unilateral nuclear blackmail against the DPRK”, said Rodong Sinmun, using the country’s official name.
“North Korea is seeking to flawless its nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles so they can hold the region and the world hostage under threat of nuclear strike”, Power said. The Joongang Ilbo newspaper recommended they should be armed with tactical nuclear weapons, as they were until the early 1990s.
New tests would help improve the design of North Korean warheads and develop a stronger “boosted” hybrid bomb, which uses some nuclear fusion fuel with conventional uranium or plutonium fuel to achieve a larger explosive force, said Lee Choon Geun, an analyst at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
At the meeting, held at the request of Japan, the United States and South Korea, all 15 member countries, including China, agreed on the statement.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, resulting in tough new United Nations sanctions.
Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters before the council meeting that the U.N. panel will aim for new sanctions while ensuring the strict implementation of existing sanctions.
North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead would be especially worrisome for its neighbours South Korea and Japan.
Some outsiders were struck by the name of the agency that announced the nuclear test, something called the Nuclear Weapons Institute, which hasn’t appeared previously in North Korean media.
China has always been under pressure to rein in its increasingly aggressive neighbour.
Foreign minister Julie Bishop said North Korea’s actions were “extremely destabilising” and called on China to intervene to prevent further unrest in the region. China said it “strongly opposed” the test and would communicate with Pyongyang’s embassy in the capital over the matter, according to the foreign ministry.
“China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it”, he said.
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However, Beijing is unlikely to act due to fears a collapse of the North Korean regime could lead to an influx of refugees to its borders.
