A defiant North Korea today restated its demand for recognition as a “legitimate” nuclear-armed state, as world powers pondered ways to punish Pyongyang for its latest and largest atomic test.
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Sung Kim, the US State Department’s special representative for North Korea policy, said Washington and Tokyo would work closely in the Security Council and beyond “to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea’s latest action”.
The UN Security Council agreed Friday to start work on new measures – even though five sets of UN sanctions since the first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to halt the North’s nuclear drive.
In Seoul, dozens of protesters burned an effigy of the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un and North Korean flags and called for “strong retaliation”, including pre-emptive attacks on the North’s nuclear complex.
(Newswire.net – September 9, 2016) -Regardless of the fact that the United Nations has imposed sanctions on North Korea, nuclear weapons development in the country has not been ceased.
Some newspapers were equally scathing.
North Korea said it conducted a “nuclear warhead explosion” in response to perceived USA hostility.
“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.
“The members of the Security Council also recalled that they had previously expressed their determination to take further significant measures in the event of another nuclear test by the DPRK”, he said.
After the meeting China’s Ambassador Liu Jieyi sidestepped questions about Beijing’s support for sanctions. “We estimate the North has carried out the biggest-ever test”, said a statement shortly after the blast by the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“All sides should refrain from mutual provocation and any action that might exacerbate the situation”. It was the biggest nuclear test, and followed the tests in January for which the United Nations imposed sanctions on North Korea.
“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a clear violation and a flagrant disregard of Security Council resolution”, Security Council president and New Zealand Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen told reporters after urgent discussions, reading a press statement. “We must send a clear, united and strong message that the global community will never accept a nuclear North Korea”, she said.
Friday’s test came only eight months after the previous one and was nearly twice as powerful, at an estimated 10 kilotons.
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And South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo warned today that another nuclear test is likely on the horizon.
