An unnamed source from South Korea’s military said North Korea’s capital Pyongyang would be “reduced to ashes and removed from the map” if an upcoming nuclear attack was suspected.
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“To be clear, the United States does not, and never will, accept North Korea as a nuclear state”, he said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un faced worldwide condemnation on Friday for what was believed to be a 10-kilotonne blast at the Punggye-ri nuclear site. It was Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test, which followed the previous one by eight months. While South Korea and Japan might have legitimate concerns over nuclear movements in the neighbourhood, there is also urgent need to resolve the problem through constructive engagement with the North aimed at addressing its concerns as well.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006, but has insisted it will continue, come what may. South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain also condemned the test.
“We had a serious conversation about it”. Terming the test as a “provocation” the President reiterated that Washington was committed to the security of its allies in Asia and the world.
North Korea has been subject to sanctions since 2006 but the impoverished country has, nevertheless, continued to develop its nuclear programme. “France calls for the adoption as soon as possible of a new resolution”.
North Koreans gathered around public screens to watch the official announcement of the test.
“I’m very much concerned and the resolution of the Security Council must be implemented and we must send this message very strongly”, Lavrov said when asked by a pool reporter about the test.
At an emergency meeting on Friday night requested by the USA and Japan, the UN Security Council condemned the “brazen defiance” of Pyongyang. “Authoritarian regimes tend to use such temporal symbolism and combine it with emotive nationalism”, said Bhaskar, who is Director, Society for Policy Studies.
Carter said: “China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it”. “It is simply unacceptable”.
“This constitutes a direct threat to the United States, and we can not and will never accept this”, she said.
He went on to defend the test as a necessary response to a mounting US nuclear threat, and that the country would continue increasing its nuclear force “in quality and in quantity”.
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Even as South Korea reported a 5.3-magnitude seismic event, Pyongyang’s state media said the test, which comes after a series of ballistic missile launches that have also drawn global condemnation and United Nations sanctions, had achieved its goal of being able to fit a miniaturised nuclear warhead on a rocket. “The council must use every tool at its disposal to change North Korea’s calculus”.
