In January, North Korea claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, a move that was condemned by the UN Security Council and led to punitive sanctions on the North Korean regime.
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The French presidency says “the global community must unite against this new provocation”.
The test occurred deep underground, making it hard to monitor radiation to determine what type of weapon was used.
He says “this escalation is unacceptable”.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also voiced his country’s displeasure at this news. We are now analyzing whether it was a successful test, the official said. The question is whether it can play them well enough to get what its ruling regime really wants: worldwide recognition, security guarantees and, at the most fundamental level, its own continued survival.
Largely thanks to continued business with China and Russian Federation, the North’s economy – though hardly robust – long ago emerged from the disastrous starvation years of the 1990s and now shows signs of a growing domestic consumer market, where small-time entrepreneurialism is allowed and sometimes tacitly supported by the authorities.
The South Korean won closed down 0.5 percent after recovering from a sharp drop, but analysts did not expect any lasting financial market impact.
China on Friday slammed North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, saying it was “firmly opposed” to it.
Ten years, five nuclear tests, and they appear to be getting stronger. “So far, 25 of our stations are contributing to the analysis”, CTBT Organisations executive secretary Lassina Zerbo said in a statement.
The claims by Kim Jong-un’s government have not been verified but China, the country’s main diplomatic ally, cautioned against “adding fuel to the flames” in state-run media.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday criticizing North Korea for carrying out a test with “disregard” for worldwide objections.
Philip Yun, executive director of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons, also said the world can not delay a response to North Korea’s testing.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea said Friday it conducted a “higher level” nuclear warhead test explosion that will allow it to finally build “at will” an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons.
But each improvement demonstrated to the world brings the North that much closer to becoming a de facto nuclear power.
Against the backdrop of Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test is an increasingly gloomy picture of the Korean Peninsula featuring a swelling number of uncertainties.
Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the USA presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by his successor.
A statement from press secretary Josh Earnest said Mr Obama had “reiterated the unbreakable United States commitment to the security of our allies in Asia and around the world”.
(Vatican Radio) North Korea confirmed on Friday it tested a fifth nuclear device in defiance of a United Nations resolution.
The EAS urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and uphold its worldwide legal obligations.
“We will take further measures to bolster the state’s nuclear force in quality and quantity for safeguarding the dignity and the right to existence of the DPRK, and genuine peace from the US’s increasing threats of a nuclear war”, Ri thundered.
North Korea is suspected of carrying out its fifth test of a nuclear bomb, after a magnitude 5.3 quake was detected close to its test site.
North Korea fired three medium-range ballistic missiles without warning Monday, according to U.S Strategic Command, which is responsible for being vigilant against possible nuclear attacks.
China “firmly opposed” the test, Japan “protested adamantly” and the USA warned of “serious consequences”.
A jolt measuring 5.3 magnitude was detected by Russia’s Hydrometeorological Centre at 12:30 GMT.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the explosion an act of “fanatic recklessness”.
Ties between China and the North have become strained in recent years as Pyongyang has pressed ahead with its nuclear tests, and with Kim Jong-Un yet to visit Beijing since inheriting power from his father, who died in 2011.
Park’s office says she spoke in Laos with President Barack Obama about the test Friday morning, but didn’t immediately reveal more details.
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“This means they might have more bombs than a simple plutonium count would leave you to believe”, said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
