September 19, 2005 – A joint statement was announced after a marathon dialogue between the six parties: North, South Korea, China, the US, Russia and Japan.
Advertisement
South Korea’s military said it was about 10 kilotonnes, enough to make it the North’s “strongest nuclear test ever”. It promised to “continue to strengthen our capacity to bolster nuclear force”, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The country claims that a “nuclear warhead that has been standardized to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets”, has been tested.
South Korea, while commenting on North’s action of conducting nuclear test, said that Kim Jon-un was showing “maniacal recklessness”.
The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, which had warned on Thursday of “new activity” at Punggye-ri, said the latest test made plain that the US and South Korean strategy on restraining North Korea “has clearly failed”.
The U.N. Security Council already had strongly condemned the triple missile launch, and Obama vowed to tighten sanctions further.
NHK reported Japan’s Defense Ministry sent a plane to collect data to identify any radioactive materials in its airspace.
North Korea has also performed a series of unsuccessful missile tests in recent months which are part of its push for a nuclear-armed missile that could one day reach the American mainland.
National security adviser Susan Rice briefed President Barack Obama about the situation, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told pool reporters aboard Air Force One on the U.S. leader’s return trip from Asia. “We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners”.
There have already been five sets of United Nations sanctions and more may well be on the agenda, such as blocking the export of fuel oil to North Korea, but how effective they would be is unclear.
Kim has overseen a robust increase in the number and kinds of missiles tested this year. We are now analyzing whether it was a successful test, the official said.
“Secretary Carter has been briefed on the seismic activity near a North Korea nuclear site”, according to a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
December 12, 2012 – Pyongyang successfully launches a long-range Unha-3 three-stage rocket from the Sohae Space Centre. But analyses of yield in North Korea are notoriously hard, given the country’s mountainous terrain.
“The US dared challenge the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership, an act reminiscent of a new-born puppy knowing no fear of a tiger”, the news agency said. It will raise serious worries in many world capitals that Pyongyang has moved another step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the USA mainland.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to say Friday if China had received advanced notice of North Korea’s nuclear warhead test.
On August 24, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine toward Japan.
The effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is seen during an anti-North rally commemorating the four people killed in a 2010 attack by North Korea in Yeonpyeong on November 23, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea.
Advertisement
China opposed North Korea’s nuclear test, a key denunciation by the North’s economic lifeline and only major ally.
