“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a clear violation and in flagrant disregard” of past council resolutions banning nuclear tests or the use of ballistic missile technology by the country, the statement said.
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The world must now “cautiously accept the reality” that the North could launch a nuclear attack by missile, said analyst Jeung Young-Tae of the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), although the range of such a nuclear-tipped missile remained unclear.
The test was a “grave threat to regional security and to global peace and stability”, Obama said in a statement, adding North Korea should face consequences for its “unlawful and risky actions”. After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test, the council in March adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date, targeting North Korea’s trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions.
During a phone conversation with Han late Friday, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stressed the “ironclad” alliance among the US and its allies including South Korea, pointing at various means such as the nuclear umbrella, traditional deterrents and missile defense measures that can deter North Korean nuclear ambitions, according to the defense ministry here. “Maybe we shouldn’t be so honest when it comes to military strategy”, he said.
North Korea likely wanted to show the world that strong global sanctions following its fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year haven’t discouraged its efforts to advance its nuclear weapon and missile programs, according to Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University. The Pentagon did not have evidence that North Korea had been able to miniaturize a nuclear weapon, Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said.
Despite a number of failed missile tests this year, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have barely been mentioned in this year’s USA presidential race.
The members of the Security Council held urgent consultations to address the serious situation arising from the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 9 September 2016.
South Korea President Park Geun-hye called the detonation an act of “maniacal recklessness”.
South Korea’s UN ambassador Oh Joon described North Korea’s actions as “insane” provocation and spoke of his nation’s need to build up its defences.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Inoki gave Ri an unspecified gift intended for Kim, but provided no other details.
On Monday, it fired three medium-range missiles during a G20 summit in neighboring China that was attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders.
North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.
The two countries most in danger of a nuclear-armed North Korea, South Korea and Japan, called for fresh measures against the regime.
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Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo called the tests a frightening, unfortunate and serious breach of the norms adopted by the global community. Such a yield would make this test larger than the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two, which exploded with an energy of about 15 kilotonnes.
