His statement came after South Korean and global monitoring agencies reported an quake near North Koreas north-eastern nuclear test site, indicating that Pyongyang may have detonated a new atomic test to mark the 68th anniversary of the countrys founding.
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Seismic: A north Korean official points at the epicentre of the quake.
It is understood that the test was North Korea’s fifth, with CNN reporting that the latest incident is potentially the most powerful to date. To compare, the bomb dropped by the USA on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of around 15 kilotonnes.
But China, North Korea’s closest ally, used the opportunity to criticise the US and South Korea as well as its tyrannical neighbour.
Within several hours of the explosion, the Japanese government confirmed that the event was, as many had suspected, a nuclear test.
Lavrov says he will talk to Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida soon.
North Korea has previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, and most recently in January 2016. Japan has sent four jets to test for radiation.
On Tuesday, North Korea fired three medium-range Rodong missiles that travelled about 620 miles and landed near Japan, and last month, a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 310 miles, the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon.
“Today’s nuclear test, a flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, makes clear North Korea’s disregard for global norms and standards for behavior and demonstrates it has no interest in being a responsible member of the worldwide community”.
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye slammed the test as a provocation that would lead to further global sanctions and said Seoul would use “all possible measures” to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programme.
It began emergency radiation monitoring along its north-eastern border shared with North Korea, state media reported.
The UN and the West have imposed a raft of sanctions on North Korea, prompting Pyongyang to step up its nuclear activities.
“Far from achieving its stated national security and economic development goals, North Korea’s provocative and destabilizing actions have instead served to isolate and impoverish its people through its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities”.
During the meeting with the parliament’s diplomacy committee, Kim also said the government can not rule out the possibility that Pyongyang will conduct a sixth nuclear test soon.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the launch, if confirmed, is in clear violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to the Associated Press.
