“The South Korean and U.S. intelligence communities assess that North Korea is prepared for further nuclear tests in the Punggye region”, ministry spokesperson Moon Sang-gyun said at a news briefing.
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The isolated state on Friday set off its most powerful nuclear explosion to date, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.
“An additional test could be conducted in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed”, ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.
North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho departed Pyongyang on Monday for a pair of global meetings, including the U.N. General Assembly in NY, just days after North Korea’s latest nuclear test.
The UN Security Council in a press statement Friday condemned North Korea’s fifth and biggest nuclear test and discussed a new round of sanctions.
President Barack Obama declared the United States “does not, and never will” accept North Korea as a nuclear state, but the USA election to replace him is looming in less than two months. “North Korea continues to present a growing threat to the region, to our allies, to ourselves, and we will do everything possible to defend against that growing threat”, Sung Kim said.
Yonhap reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of an advanced U.S. B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday.
North Korea has carried out 37 missile tests since the young leader took power after his father’s death in 2011, according to a South Korean tally.
It comes after the South warned it would reduce the North’s capital Pyongyang to ashes if Kim Jong-un’s forces attacked.
FILE – In this file photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, a South Korean protester shouts slogans during a rally denouncing North Korea’s latest nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016.
Meanwhile, in a show of strength against North Korea, the United States will fly a USA military B-1B bomber flight over South Korea on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Kyodo News reported that North Korea’s foreign minister arrived in Beijing on Monday. But they center on a technological mystery that has long bedeviled outside experts: How far has North Korea gotten in efforts to consistently shrink down nuclear warheads so they can fit on long-range missiles?
Along with the United States, both Japanand South Koreaneed to review their ties with Pakistanbecause North Korea’s fifth nuclear test has now changed everything in the Asian theatre. North Korea has deemed these sanctions “laughable”, according to the official KCNA news agency. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme in exchange for aid were last held in late 2008 and fell apart in early 2009.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said over the weekend that North Korea’s nuclear capability had grown to a “considerable level” and tougher sanctions and greater pressure are needed.
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Some 28,500 USA servicemembers are stationed in the South, which remains technically at war with the North after the 1950-53 war ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
