Critics, however, say China hasn’t done enough to tighten economic pressure on North Korea as punishment for its nuclear tests, which the Chinese government has publicly opposed.
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The latest nuclear test was the most powerful to date and Pyongyang’s claim to have used “standardised” warheads has sparked worries it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on missiles.
The U.N. Security Council denounced the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution.
Following North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Kim Jong Un’s regime is ready to conduct another nuclear test any time.
A U.S. special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday after discussing cooperation among neighbouring countries in Tokyo in the wake of the North’s latest nuclear test. By 2006, North Korea tested its first nuclear bombwhich was in direct violation to the previously signed agreements along with the NPT.
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.
“North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test”, Moon said.
In response to North Korea’s most recent test the USA promised “the strongest possible” measures to counter “the provocative and unacceptable behaviour by the North Koreans”.
He also suggested the United States may launch its own sanctions.
The UK, US and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.
Yonhap reported that a planned US military B-1B bomber flight to the Korean peninsula had been scheduled for Monday but was delayed because of bad weather.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday called for a “creative” response. The USFK official, speaking to Reuters, however, declined to name the bomber’s type or the size of the fleet.
It said the United States was “the root cause” of the issue.
An underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile is pictured in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on April 24, 2016.
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The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
