The spokesman defended the test, which has been condemned worldwide, as a necessary response to what he termed a United States nuclear threat.
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Reuters reported Sunday that Sung Kim, a US special envoy and former ambassador to Seoul, said the USA may launch sanctions against North Korea with Tokyo and Seoul.
Recounting Pakistan’s role in the development of the North Korean Nuclear Program, experts said what AQ Khan started in the late 1990’s is “now coming home to roost and the two most threatened nations are Japan and South Korea”.
“In addition to action in the Security Council, both the USA and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation”.
Pyongyang said the USA must recognise it as a “legitimate nuclear weapons state” and that it would continue to strengthen its nuclear power “in quality and quantity” despite the West’s condemnation of the programme.
“In addition to action in the security council, both the United States and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation”, he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
Pyongyang has mocked US-led drive for even tighter economic sanctions as “laughable” after the communist state carried out what it claimed was its fifth and biggest nuclear weapons test.
The relationship between North and South Korea is unsurprisingly tense, and this latest report indicates the South is fed up.
If Pyongyang can make a nuclear device small enough to fit on a rocket – and bolster the range and accuracy of its missiles – it might achieve its oft-stated aim of hitting United States targets.
A military source told Yonhap news agency, which has strong ties to South Korea’s government, that Pyongyang will be “completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosives shells” if there was any evidence of a nuclear threat.
KCNA insisted Sunday that North Koreans were delighted by Friday’s detonation.
Obama vowed to work with the UN Security Council, other six-party partners and the global community to “take additional significant steps, including new sanctions” to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to its unlawful and unsafe actions.
“In other words, the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map”.
US President Barack Obama slammed the test as a “grave threat” and called for more sanctions on North Korea just hours after the test took place. As Seoul does not have its own nuclear arsenal, it relies heavily on its Hyunmoo missile arsenal, according to Yonhap’s source.
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South Korea’s Chun-ma (C), a Self-Propelled Surface to Air Missile System, moves during an equipment demonstration in Goyang, north of Seoul, on September 10, 2016.
