Meanwhile, Kyodo News reported that North Korea’s foreign minister arrived in Beijing on Monday.
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The South’s Defence Ministry could not immediately confirm the report, but the military has vowed to take strong actions to retaliate in the event of an attack by the North.
North Korea claimed the nuclear test was its fifth and biggest ever. It triggered a flurry of phone calls among the anxious leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan.
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.
The North also boasted that the test was of a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a missile.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Monday that South Korea and USA 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.
Moon refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible nuclear test. Yonhap did not elaborate.
Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.
The frequent, unannounced missile launches by North Korea, prompted Washington to announce plans in July to deploy a USA antiballistic missile system in South Korea.
That is just under the explosive yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, which produced 15 kilotons.
But a USA expert, based on power of the quake it triggered, said it could have be up to 30 kilotonnes.
“The North appears to have been making headway in its nuclear and missile capabilities as shown in recent various tests, which is probably why it did press ahead with them despite warnings from everywhere including China”.
The South Korean defense ministry has also presented the “Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation” to the national assembly, “aimed at wiping a certain section of Pyongyang completely off the map”, Yonhap quoted a military source as saying.
China responded Monday to calls that it needs to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program by saying that American officials were truly to blame for inciting conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
A view of a missile fired during a drill in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang.
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A group of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers, whose membership is now 24 and growing, was launched last month to push for the country to start preparations for its own nuclear development.
