North Korea said on Sunday a push for further sanctions following its fifth and biggest nuclear test was “laughable”, and vowed to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.
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As with anything reported by Pyongyang, an authoritarian state run by a third-generation dictator who allows zero dissent or outside investigation, there’s reason to be skeptical.
“We can’t assume that China is going to solve this for us”, Fitzpatrick said.
North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile is especially worrisome for its neighbours South Korea and Japan.
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.
“And North Korea is undergoing a real acceleration of both its missile and nuclear programmes under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, and so this is the assessment as things stand of South Korea”.
But since that measure was adopted, North Korea has carried out 21 ballistic missile launches, United States ambassador Samantha Power said.
China is also angry at Washington and Seoul for a decision to place an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea, saying it threatens China’s security and won’t help bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.
“We should discuss every plan including an independent nuclear armament program at the level of self-defense to safeguard peace”, Won Yoo-chul, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a statement.
After a closed-door meeting on the matter, the United Nations Security Council on Friday issued a press statement, saying “a clear threat to worldwide peace and security continues to exist” with the DPRK’s latest test.
North Korea is banned by the United Nations from any tests of nuclear or missile technology and has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since its first test in 2006.
The yield from Friday’s test was estimated at 10 kilotons, nearly twice as much as the one Pyongyang conducted only eight months ago. The North’s fourth test, in January, was an estimated six kilotons.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra?ad Al Hussein also designated two independent human rights experts to support the work of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea Tomas Ojea Quintana.
South Korea said the nuclear threat from its wayward neighbour was growing fast and called for tough new sanctions from the UN Security Council to force it to change tack.
If the North has mastered miniaturization, the next step would be making and stamping bombs that can be put on warheads.
“To be clear, the United States does not, and never will, accept North Korea as a nuclear state”, he said.
Meanwhile, in a show of strength against North Korea, the United States will fly a U.S. military B-1B bomber flight over South Korea on Tuesday.
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North Korea has reportedly completed preparations for another nuclear test.
