South Korea condemned the pariah states actions, and said on 10 September that the latest test showed North Koreas nuclear capability was expanding quickly and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course.
Advertisement
“South Korean and USA intelligence authorities’ assessment is North Korea is prepared to carry out an additional nuclear test at Punggye-ri”, Moon Sang Gyun told reporters.
The threat comes after the dictatorship set off its most powerful nuclear explosion to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a challenge to rivals and the United Nations. The country is already in talks with the U.S.to install a missile-defense system, and the military source told Yonhap it would use ballistic missiles against North Korea if necessary.
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.
“We will be working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea’s latest actions”, said USA envoy Sung Kim on Sunday.
On Friday, North Korea put the global community on edge by completing its fifth and largest nuclear test.
Moon refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible North Korea test.
Seoul, Washington and their allies subsequently have vowed to apply more pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of its latest nuclear test, the second this year. “In other words, the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map”, the source said, according to YonHap News Agency.
He added that the USA and Japan were also looking at unilateral and bilateral measures, “as well as possible trilateral cooperation”.
South Korea’s military also started talking publicly about its military capabilities, revealing it has retaliation plans involving precision-strike missiles and special operations forces for direct attacks on the North’s leadership in the case of a North Korean nuclear attack.
Advertisement
Obama reaffirmed, as he has done repeatedly following North Korean ballistic missile launches, the USA commitment to “take necessary steps to defend our allies in the region”, namely South Korea and Japan. North Korea and the US are technically still in a state of war, since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
