A statement from the South Korean military also said that an artificial tremor, registered as magnitude 5.0, had originated from Punggye-ri in northeastern North Korea, where the North has conducted its four previous underground nuclear tests.
Advertisement
2015, May: North Korea test-fires a submarine-launched ballistic missile, but experts say it was short of a full flight test. Everyone is against North Korea’s nuclear threat.
South Korea says it believes the quake was caused by the testing of a nuclear device, with a yield of 10 kilotons.
South Korea’s meteorological agency says a magnitude 5.3 seismic event in North Korea appears to have been a nuclear test.
State-run Xinhua news agency briefly quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement firmly opposing the test.
Earnest says Obama reiterated the unbreakable US commitment to the security of America’s allies in Asia and around the world.
The most powerful test came just 8 months after Pyongyang detonated what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb, the fourth of its nuclear device tests, on January 6.
Friday morning’s nuclear test triggered a magnitude 5.3 natural disaster and sent world leaders scrambling to condemn the North’s latest act of aggression, as Kim Jong-un’s isolated regime continues to defy global sanctions.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the explosion an act of “fanatic recklessness”.
The U.S. National Security Council says it’s “aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula” and “monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners”.
North Korea is banned by United Nations sanctions from any tests of nuclear or missile technology.
“The only thing that Kim Jong Un regime can gain from the nuclear tests is stronger sanctions from the global community and its isolation”.
Earlier this week, the DPRK test-fired three Rodong ballistic missiles that traveled about 1,000 km and landed near Japan’s territorial waters.
– August 24: North Korea fires a ballistic missile from a submarine that flew 500 kilometers (310 miles) before crashing into waters near Japan.
After the fourth test in January, South Korean policymaker Lee Cheol Woo said Seoul’s National Intelligence Service told him an estimated explosive yield of six kilotons was detected. This anxious many South Koreans because submarine-based missiles are harder to detect before launch than land-based weapons.
Diplomacy has so far failed to stop North Korea’s progress.
Though Beijing’s relations have been strained over Pyongyang’s growing nuclear ambitions, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has refrained from severely punishing Kim.
North Korea blames the United States and South Korea for its nuclear program, saying long-running “hostility” from Seoul and Washington to its government makes the development crucial for the small country’s survival.
Advertisement
“Not long along, South Korea ignored the strong opposition of neighbouring countries and chose to deploy the THAAD system, which is diametrically opposed to efforts to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula, has seriously damaged regional strategic balance and caused a rise in tensions on the peninsula”. War ends with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.
