North Korea said Friday it conducted a “higher level” nuclear warhead test explosion, which it trumpeted as finally allowing it to build “at will” an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons.
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SOUTH Korea has warned that North Korea is poised to conduct yet another nuclear test and that this could happen at anytime at one of the unused tunnels at the country’s main atomic test site.
The warning of additional test is based on three tunnels excavated at Punggye-ri near which all of its underground nuclear tests were conducted.
FILE – In this file photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, a South Korean protester shouts slogans during a rally denouncing North Korea’s latest nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. She was responding to calls by President Barack Obama for China to tighten up sanctions against Kim Jong Un’s regime prior to its fifth – and biggest – nuclear test last week.
In response to North Korea’s most recent test the United States promised “the strongest possible” measures to counter “the provocative and unacceptable behaviour by the North Koreans”.
US State Department’s Special Representative for North Korea Policy Ambassador Sung Kim shakes hands with Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Kenji Kanasugi prior to a meeting at the foreign ministry in Tokyo.
China deflected criticism that it could do more to stifle North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, questioning the effectiveness of sanctions and saying the USA has a responsibility to fix a problem it created.
The nuclear test has been denounced by the United Nations Security Council, which is being pushed by the U.S., the U.K., and France to impose fresh sanctions on the hermit kingdom.
“Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon”. North Korea is capable of detonating another nuclear device anytime at one of its unused tunne.
It was not clear if the Security Council can quickly come to a consensus on fresh sanctions, given the ambivalence by China and Russian Federation on adopting another resolution.
“The essence of the issue is the conflict between the DPRK and the United States”, said Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, using country’s official name.
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But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Monday that Carter was “being too modest”.
