North Korea has reacted angrily to threats of sanctions against the country for its nuclear test on 9 September, blasting US President Obama for being “foolish”.
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Both China and Russian Federation, the remaining veto powers, backed sanctions imposed in March following the North’s January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions cast doubt on the Security Council’s ability to quickly form a consensus. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it would not comment on the report.
North Korea’s pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons is one of the most intractable foreign policy problems for the US and South Korea.
The claim reported by Reuters comes from an American military official in South Korea.
According to South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyn, the North is poised to conduct its sixth nuclear test imminently.
Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to North Korea said the UN Security Council along with Japan, South Korea and the United States are examining additional unilateral measures.
“The Obama administration running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable”, state media said Sunday. Furthermore, Pyongyang stressed that its nuclear capabilities were particularly important in order to “ensure genuine peace from the US”, which it believes is to blame for increasing the threat of a nuclear war.
North Korea was hit with the strongest set of sanctions yet in March which included the prohibition of supplying aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, and the sale of small arms, to Pyongyang.
A South Korean activist tramples on a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during a protest at the country’s latest nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, on September 12.
“If (the North) does conduct an additional test, it is possible to take place in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed”.
But Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for American Progress, said China has more leverage, and more reason to act, than its officials sometimes make it seem publicly.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said sanctions alone could not solve the North Korean nuclear issue.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Monday that South Korea and US intelligence authorities believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device anytime at its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the five previous atomic explosions took place.
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“The US side should review developments of the issue, and carefully think about pragmatic and effective solutions”.
