“North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test”, Moon said.
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Friday’s test sparked criticism from the USA as well as neighbors China, South Korea and Japan and other countries. The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the nuclear test – the North’s fifth and its second of the year – and promised new measures against Pyongyang.
“North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test”.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified government official earlier on Monday saying Pyongyang had completed preparations for another nuclear test in its previously unused third tunnel at the Punggye-ri site in the north-east.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea is capable of detonating another nuclear device at its main atomic test site any time it chooses, Seoul officials said Monday, as the United States reportedly planned to send two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers to the South in a show of force against Pyongyang.
The army wants to set up a huge block of speakers and a giant screen at the frontier and play the music along with South Korean and global news bulletins in a bid to infuriate Pyongyang, the Korea Times newspaper reports.
South Korea has long avoided harsh rhetoric against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un but after Friday’s nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Kim’s “mental state is spiraling out of control” and that his government has “fanatic recklessness”.
He also suggested that the USA may launch its own sanctions.
Analysts have warned that it is only a matter of time until the North develops nuclear-tipped missiles.
It said the United States was “the root cause” of the issue.
“In other words, the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map”.
The envoy will arrive in Seoul later Monday and hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-Kyun on Tuesday morning. The United States, Britain and France-three of the five veto-wielding permanent members – pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions. “Washington has been refusing to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang”.
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South Korea estimates that the force of Friday’s nuclear detonation was 10 kilotonnes, which would be the most powerful blast to date, but a U.S. expert believes that the seismic magnitude of the explosion suggests a yield closer to 20 or 30 kilotonnes surpassing the destructive force of the Hiroshima bomb that killed almost 150,000 people instantly. The Defense Ministry did not immediately confirm the report, according to Reuters, but the military did vow to retaliate if such a threat were to take place.
