On Friday, Pyongyang launched its most powerful nuclear blast to date, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile.
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On Friday, the North conducted its fifth nuclear test and warned it would continue to strengthen its nuclear capabilities despite the worldwide community’s efforts to use additional sanctions to stop it. President Barack Obama said the US would never accept North Korea as a nuclear power.
Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North’s five nuclear explosions.
The ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun nevertheless declared Monday that the nuclear programme’s “miraculous successes” mean the North has not only United States bases in the Asia-Pacific but also the U.S. mainland “in its clutches”.
North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said on Monday, three days after Pyongyang carried out a fifth such test that drew worldwide condemnation.
The site of the fifth nuclear test is some 500 metres away from where the fourth test was conducted, according to Yonhap news agency report citing government sources.
In a statement hailing the “success” of its test on Friday, the North vowed to take further measures to increase its nuclear strike force “in quality and in quantity”. “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.
South Korea’s president said the detonation, which Seoul estimated was the North’s biggest-ever in explosive yield, was an act of “fanatic recklessness” and a sign that leader Kim Jong Un “is spiraling out of control”.
Seoul, Washington and their allies have pledged to apply more pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang after its latest nuclear test.
Moon refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible nuclear test.
It said the USA was “the root cause” of the issue. The toughest United Nations sanctions in two decades were imposed on the North for its fourth nuclear test in January, but the new test raised a question over whether sanctions can force a change in North Korea.
One possibility is that China could try to broker a deal to freeze North Korea’s development of new missiles and warheads as part of the US and South Korea suspending joint military exercises, Tong said.
“The North appears to have been making headway in its nuclear and missile capabilities as shown in recent various tests, which is probably why it did press ahead with them despite warnings from everywhere including China”.
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U.S. troops have been based in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in an armistice and not a full peace treaty.
