The UN has imposed the strongest sanctions against North Korea to date, so now we’ll have to see what South Korea and the worldwide community will bring out again this time.
Advertisement
South Korean intelligence officials told legislators in a closed briefing after the test that North Korea cannot now develop nuclear weapons that can be mounted on ballistic missiles, but did confirm that the communist regime is advancing more quickly than previously estimates, according to Kim Byung-Kee, of the opposition Minjoo Party.
John Kerry said during the press conference that the United States would negotiate with North Korea immediately if Kim Jong Un would declare readiness to abandon nuclearization.
The statement warned that the tests could damage regional peace and stability and also constitute a new and clear violation of UN Security Council Resolutions.
KCTV went on to say that the nuclear test was a response to sanctions led by the US and its allies, . and that Pyongyang will continue to develop its nuclear weapons as a means of self-defense.
On his way back from Asia, President Obama consulted with the South’s President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in separate phone calls.
China opposed North Korea’s nuclear test, a key denunciation by the North’s economic lifeline and only major ally.
The UN Security Council is meeting on Friday to discuss the tests.
The statement came after North Korea announced earlier in the day that it had conducted a successful “nuclear warhead explosion” test, saying it was meant to counter United States hostility.
In the aftermath of North Korea’s latest nuclear test, the responses from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were – as is often the case – starkly different.
North Korea announced on Friday it has conducted its fifth nuclear test, its largest to date, the official KCNA news agency said.
On Friday, North Korea confirmed their fifth nuclear test – and their biggest one so far – after the resulting explosion triggered a 5.3 quake at a depth of zero.
Defence Minister Tomomi Inada, meanwhile, said the likelihood that North Korea has created a miniaturised warhead can no longer be ruled out given the “technical maturity of its nuclear weapons development”.
First indications of an underground explosion came when seismic monitors detected a 5.3-magnitude “artificial earthquake” near the Punggye-ri nuclear site. “They aren’t a backwards state any more”, he said.
Advertisement
Senator Bob Corker released the following statement after reports of a nuclear test by North Korea, the fifth conducted by the regime in the past decade.
