The U.N. Security Council denounced North Korea’s decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution.
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“North Korea’s nuclear capability is growing and speeding to a considerable level, considering the fifth nuclear test was the strongest in scale and the interval has quickened substantially”, Yun told a ministry meeting convened to discuss the test.
Meanwhile, Seoul is publicly trying to gather support from the worldwide community for tougher sanctions aimed at reining in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter also singled out China’s influence saying the global community should redouble pressure on North Korea after the test, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding. “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 strikes”.
South Korea’s president said the detonation, which Seoul estimated was the North’s biggest in explosive yield, was an act of “fanatic recklessness” and a sign that leader Kim Jong Un “is spiralling out of control”.
The test, when coupled with the three successful ballistic missile launches earlier in the week, offered a hint to world leaders that North Korean engineers and scientists are making another incremental, yet significant, step in their nuclear weapons program.
The latest test was announced on state TV hours after a 5.3 magnitude tremor was detected near the Punggye-ri underground nuclear site.
South Korea will drop the bomb on North Korea if Kim Jong-Un tries to duke it out with nukes, according to reports.
Two months ago, USA -based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, said satellite images showed a high level of activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site, called Punggye-ri.
“This latest nuclear test is highly provocative and deeply concerning, especially as it comes on the back of a series of ballistic missile launches by North Korea recently” Mr McCully says.
“If South Korea arms itself with nuclear weapons, North Korea will regard the South Korean nuclear weapons, not the distant American nukes, as the most direct threat to its security”, Cheong said.
But some experts say the United Nations sanctions are not working on North Korea.
But since that measure was adopted, North Korea has carried out 21 ballistic missile launches, United States ambassador Samantha Power said. “The patience of the worldwide community has come to the limit”, she said.
Japan branded North Korea an “outlaw nation in the neighborhood”.
“We are opposed to testing and we believe that it is more urgent than ever to work together to ensure denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”, Liu said.
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“Still, North Korea has continued to press ahead”. The missiles were tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan; they were determined to not have posed a threat to North America.
