The country also claimed on 20 September that it had successfully carried out a ground test of a new rocket engine for launching a geostationary satellite: a development that will probably boost Pyongyang’s growing missile capabilities.
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South Korean lawmakers urged the military to establish a defence system to respond to the North’s nuclear test and submarine-launched ballistic missile.
The two countries have reportedly begun discussions on a possible United Nations resolution in response to the latest nuclear test, but it remains to be seen whether this would mean closing loopholes in earlier sanctions.
It is the second such flight since North Korea’s fifth nuclear test on September 9.
North Korea has successfully tested a new high-powered rocket engine, according to state media yesterday, a move created to showcase its progress towards being able to target the U.S. east coast.
South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties on Wednesday continued to debate over whether Seoul should consider its own nuclear armament as an option to defend the country, amid the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula sparked by Pyongyang’s provocations.
North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year.
“The [Republic of Korea] ROK-US Combined Air Forces, acutely aware of this climacteric situation, maintains a close information sharing and a robust combined operational capability”.
“It can rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time”, US Forces Korea said in a press statement.
A spokesman for the United States Forces Korea (USFK), Kim Yong-Kyu said that the USFK “does not discuss operational matters”.
China, as the North’s main trade partner, is, however, highly critical of imposing sanctions and tougher measures on the North but is also concerned about Pyongyang’s nuclear activities. Strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang haven’t discouraged Kim Jong Un from building up a nuclear program. Ltd. logged more than $530 million in two-way trade with North Korea between 2011 and 2015, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul and C4ADS in Washington said in a report released Monday.
The front page of the North’s Rodong Sinmun yesterday showed a picture of a long flame bursting from an engine propped up by a cement structure.
He further expressed concern about the North’s alleged acceleration in accumulation of fissile material for the goal of mass producing nuclear bombs.
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Pyongyang has pledged to develop a nuclear arsenal in a bid to protect itself from the United States military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region.
