The following is the statement of the Department of Foreign Affairs on the latest missile launch of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It was Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test and followed the previous one by eight months.
Advertisement
Zhang said it is China’s “firm and consistent” stance to realize denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, maintain regional peace and stability and resolve problems through dialogue and consultation.
The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) nuclear test on 9 September and said it is a clear violation of repeated calls on the country to halt such activity.
“Therefore a clear threat to global peace and security continues to exist”, the statement said.
North Korea said Friday that it has successfully carried out a nuclear warhead explosion.
“China stands firm for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, nuclear non-proliferation, as well as peace and stability of Northeast Asia”.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) was quoted as saying that artificial quake waves of magnitude 5.0 were detected at about 9:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) at the DPRK’s main Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
Meanwhile, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center said a 5.0-magnitude natural disaster was detected in the DPRK and later revised the magnitude to 5.3. It also conducted underground nuclear tests respectively in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Advertisement
A 5.0-magnitude artificial natural disaster was recorded before Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test on January 6 at Punggye-ri where all of the four DPRK underground nuclear tests had been carried out since 2006. The source said a nuclear test is highly likely in consideration of the detected site and magnitude.
