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Obama’s push for sanctions ‘meaningless’, ‘laughable’: North Korea

North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea’s defense ministry said Monday, September 12, just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test.

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The US says it is considering its own sanctions, in addition to any imposed by the UN Security Council, Japan and South Korea.

The claim has been echoed by South Korean news agency Yonhap, which reported there were signs the North had finished nuclear test preparations in an unused tunnel.

North Korea is capable of detonating another nuclear device at any time at the country’s main test site, South Korea has said.

A view of a missile fired during a drill in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. “North Korea is seeking to ideal its nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles so they can hold the region and the world hostage under threat of nuclear strikes”. “In other words, the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map”, a South Korean government source told Yonhap.

A council statement pledged to work on “appropriate measures” in response.

“If (the North) does conduct an additional test, it is possible to take place in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed”.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it would not comment on the report.

The worldwide community is considering its response to the latest provocation by the North, with the United States, South Korea and Japan leading the calls for even more sanctions to be imposed. The measures will be under Article 41 of the U.N. Charter, which specifies non-military actions including sanctions, it said.

Chairman Ho also criticized South Korean administration by saying, “Although the DPRK called on South Korea to have dialogue and entente to ease military tension, the US and South Korea conducted joint military training in spring and summer this year based on the senario of the “occupation of Pyongyang” and “beheading mission”.

The ministry insisted that North Korea will continue to increase its nuclear force in quality and quantity, adding that this was necessary to “safeguard the dignity” and “right to exist” of the DPRK.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon). South Korean army soldiers ride their armored vehicles during an annual exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016.

The US said that any provocations from the North would come with “serious consequences”.

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Hwang said during a meeting that North Korea’s “fanatical development of nuclear arms and missiles would become the poison that would hasten the destruction of its regime rather than consolidate it”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a speech at the 9th Congress of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in this undated