South Korea’s National Security Council was also holding an emergency meeting following the test, a spokesman for the president’s office said.
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Obama reiterated the unbreakable USA commitment to the security of its allies in Asia and around the world, Earnest said.
“We believe that it was a nuclear test”.
He spoke as he started a day of Syria negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
US President Barack Obama was immediately briefed following the detonation at the Pyunggye-ri nuclear test site and warned of “serious consequences” for the secretive state.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the test was likely to have been North Korea’s “biggest-ever”, adding that the yield was thought to have been 10 kilotons, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
“An artificial quake was detected near North Korea’s Punggye-ri at around 9:30 a.m. local time.” .
“I think it was also aimed at maximising shock to the worldwide community”, he said.
Japan’s Abe said such a nuclear test could not be tolerated.
He says “this escalation is unacceptable”.
China has expressed explicit opposition to the DPRK’s nuclear and missile tests and Washington and Seoul’s missile shield deployment plan as well as other moves detrimental to regional peace and stability, and has been earnestly calling for dialogue.
“With the nuclear test, Kim Jong-Un’s regime will only earn more sanctions and isolation”.
“North Korea’s nuclear development is becoming a graver threat to Japan’s safety and severely undermines the peace and safety of the region and the worldwide community”, Abe said. In comparison, North Korea fired 16 ballistic missiles during the 17-year rule of Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il. “As a South Korean citizen, I deplore this”.
A confirmed test by the isolated North would send tensions soaring over its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions, which have already earned global condemnation and United Nations sanctions.
A recent stress test of domestic banks by authorities also showed that they can endure the previous financial crisis-level situation for three months or longer, the FSS said.
The agency’s executive secretary, Lassina Zerbo, says in a statement that Friday’s detonation seems to have been slightly larger than the one recorded on January 6.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday criticizing North Korea for carrying out a test with “disregard” for worldwide objections.
Diplomacy has so far failed.
North Korea has previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2016, with explosive yields of less than one kiloton, 2-4 kilotons, 6-9 kilotons, and 7-9 kilotons respectively.
China has provided cover to North Korea from worldwide denunciations of its nuclear program.
The White House stopped short of calling it a nuclear test, referring to “reported seismic activity” near a known North Korean nuclear test site. It will raise serious worries in many world capitals that Pyongyang has moved another step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the US mainland.
North Korea has hit the button on its fifth and potentially most powerful nuclear test, claiming to have successfully tested a nuclear warhead. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday criticizing North Korea for a test that disregards worldwide objections.
“Our. party sent a congratulatory message to our nuclear scientists. for conducting the successful nuclear warhead explosion test”, she said. Japanese planes began to collect air samples from national air space to analyze possible radioactive materials.
She told reporters: “I will protect the safety of Tokyo residents”.
Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested this was the most powerful nuclear test conducted by North Korea so far.
The test occurred deep underground, making it hard to monitor radiation to determine what type of weapon was used.
That test was recorded with a magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye strongly condemned the test, saying in a statement that it showed the “fanatic recklessness of the Kim Jong Un government as it clings to nuclear development”.
North Korea’s Mansudae with the Leaders monument.
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It runs counter to UN Security Council resolutions as well as the ultimate goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
